


Bathhouse revelations

by Lunael



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst and Humor, Bets, Cute, Gossip, M/M, Male Slash, Virginity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-26
Updated: 2008-08-26
Packaged: 2017-11-27 08:53:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 71,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/660119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunael/pseuds/Lunael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a long day of work, Iruka finds himself listening to some gossips concerning a certain jounin at the bathhouse and discovers that Kakashi-sensei is in love... with him! Beware: deeper that it appears. Please bear in mind that this story was written a long time ago and is rather old. Posted here without pretentions :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally posted on ff.net and written between 2006 and 2008, back when my English wasn't what it is now. I left the Naruto fandom many years ago, but I put so much energy into these KakaIru fanfics I feel like I have to archive them as well. I hope the Naruto fans around here will appreciate them.

It was already past 9 o’clock when Iruka finally finished correcting his students’ homework. Puting down his red pen, the chuunin stretched a bit his sore muscles and heaved a content sigh. He looked through the window: the sky was already pitch dark outside and the form of the moon could be seen through layers of misty clouds. Was it already that late? It sure had taken him more time than he had first expected... He was probably the only living soul still inside the Academy at that hour. Again, the chuunin mused tiredly as he started to put together his belongings. Not that he minded it - the job had to be done and he hated grading at home anyway. And it wasn’t so bad either to finish this late because he was going to stop at the local bathhouse to reward himself for his hard day of work. That thought brought a small, tired smile to the brown-haired man’s lips. 

When Umino Iruka stayed past 8 o’clock at the academy, he always went to the bathhouse to relax into the hotspring a bit before heading home. At first, he had only indulged into these bathing sessions once in a while at the end of especially rough days, but over the years it had slowly become a habit for him to go to the bathhouse whenever he left work after eight o’clock. At these hours, public baths were usually less busy and Iruka liked it that way. It wasn’t that he was shy to frequent bathhouses, but he was a bit prude and preferred, when it was possible, taking his bath alone. 

So Iruka left the academy and quietly headed for the bathhouse. At this late hour, streets were mostly empty and a peaceful quietness seemed to rule over the usually busy ninja village. The chuunin enjoyed that quiet atmosphere a lot, even if people seemed to think of him as a loud person. He frowned at the thought. He had gotten that unfair reputation during the period of time that academy teachers liked to refer as “the Naruto days”. The blond teenager sure knew ways to drive him mad back then... The chuunin smiled with nostalgia at the thought.

Naruto… The blonde had grown so much over the years. Iruka remebered the time when the ramen-lover used to cling to his hips and hug him so childishly. But nowadays, the teenager was taller than him and only his still a bit boyish face proved that not so long ago, he had been just a child. How many years had passed since he left the Academy? Four, maybe five years? My, time sure passed fast...! And Naruto had gained so much maturity during those years. Oh, people usually didn’t realize it because he was still as boisterous and enthusiast as before, but he had gained maturity in his thoughts and interests – to the advantage of all Konoha inhabitants, really. Iruka was one of the few people who actually realized how much the teen had grown and was proud of the person Naruto grew up to be. Proud to know that the young jerk he used to teach had turned into a fine –even if still a bit excessive- young man in the end. 

To the brown-haired man’s great pleasure, they still met once in a while to talk a bit over a bowl of ramen at the Ichiraku ramen bar. Sometimes, Naruto’s current and famous teacher, Hatake Kakashi, joined them as well. They never talked much to each other, though. Well, the Copy Nin didn’t seem to be a very talkative person to begin with… 

To say the truth, Iruka didn’t know much about the jounin. He knew for a fact that the silver-haired man was widely known to be a genius and a very powerful and skilled nin as well as a very eccentric men who liked to read pornographic novels in public area and who made up some of the crappiest lies he’d ever heard of. But that was all. He had no idea what kind of person Hatake Kakashi truly was like. 

At first, he hadn’t minded at all about it; he had respected the jounin’s obvious desire to keep his private life to himself and hadn’t given much thoughts about who was the so-called mysterious Hatake Kakashi behind his laid-back attitude. Or at least, that was how it used to be at the beginning. But for some reason unknown to Umino Iruka, his lack of knowledge about the ex-anbu started to bother him. He couldn’t tell exactly when he started feeling that way - hell, he couldn’t even tell for a fact why he suddenly felt curious to begin with. All he knew was that at some point between the chuunin evaluation and Sasuke’s return a year ago, it began to bother him. And ever since, the chuunin hadn’t been able to stop wondering what kind of person the mysterious Copy nin he met with so often and everybody talked about truly was. 

Iruka sighed helplessly at the thought; he wished he knew at least why it bugged him so much... Some part of him reasoned out it probably had something to do with the fact that he kept on running into the silver-haired man almost everyday, but somehow that explaination seemed pretty shallow to the academy teacher - he met with countless other strangers everyday as well and he had never felt the need to find out more about any of them before. Of course, he sometimes happened to be a bit curious about some of them, but it wasn’t the same thing. What was so special about Hatake Kakashi anyway for him to feel so curious? When he thought about it, the whole situation was quite paradoxal; Iruka was curious about the jounin because he was different from all the other strangers he met with on daily basis, yet he couldn’t figure out how the silver-haired jounin was different from them because he didn’t know him at all. The academy teacher snorted at the thought.

Iruka hadn’t intended to go as far as to try to satisfy his curiosity and find out more about Hatake Kakashi. Really, he hadn’t. But as months slowly passed by, the chuunin couldn’t help but notice that his curiosity wasn’t going away like it was supposed to in such situations. Which was troublesome, to use an expression one of his ex-student fancied a lot. So in the end, the brown-haired man gave in and tried to learn more about Kakashi-sensei, in hope to finally get rid of that curiosity he felt toward the silver-haired man - or at least that’s what he kept on telling himself. But no matter what he told himself, Iruka couldn’t help but honestly feel a bit shameful about this initiative of his; he had never thought much of people who showed interest for other people’ private life – especially strangers. And now he was one of those poeple, he thought guiltily. Talk about hypocrisy... 

But in the end, his worries and efforts turned out to be pointless since his egoist little quest had led him nowhere; even after weeks of information gathering, he had found himself in the same position as before his investigations: he knew as much about Hatake Kakashi as Naruto had told him randomly in their discussions in the past years. Which wasn’t much, to say the truth. 

It wasn’t because Naruto wasn’t perspicacious; the teenager had grown to be very perceptive over the years, even though he still acted dense. But Naruto, as unbelievable as it might have seemed to some people, had also learned about respect and discretion. Yes, discretion - it did sound unbelievable, but it was true. Naruto wasn’t one to share personal information –no matter how juicy it was- if he thought it would hurt someone. Such an attitude made Iruka proud of the teen’s maturity, but at the same time it depressed him a bit since Naruto seemed to be his best – and almost his only - source of information about the Sharigan user. Anyhow, the academy teacher had decided he wouldn’t ask the ramen-lover about his current teacher. Naruto’s attitude was admirable and Iruka respected it too much to try prying information out of the young man. It would be just... wrong. Especially since Kakashi seemed to be a very secretive person - or at least that’s what people he had asked about it had told him. 

It was truly amazing how little trustable information could be found on Hatake Kakashi! Even the two gossip whores of the village, Awaki and Anko, didn’t have much to tell him. Sure, they had heard about a few far-fetched gossip stories - and Iruka didn’t doubt they had invented a few of them as well - but there was nothing serious that could satisfy his curiosity there. He had learned, for instance, that Hatake Kakashi was a closet fan of Madonna, was anorexic and crossdressed on Tuesday nights at a bar on Wildertree street. 

The chuunin didn’t put too much faith into these stories, but he had to admit those were very amusing mental images.

Of course, after going round in cercle for a while, Iruka had tried to get a bit closer to the silver-haired man; if he was to learn more about Hatake Kakashi, the best way to do it was to go at the source, he reasonned. But it didn’t work out pretty well; to the brown-haired man’s regret, Kakashi-sensei didn’t seem to like him much. Whenever Iruka tried to start a conversation with the Copy nin, his eyes fled the chuunin’s gaze and he found himself some ridiculously obvious lie to disappear as fast as possible. It upset a bit the academy teacher to be treated like that - the jounin always seemed to be so cool and composed toward others, why did he look so uncomfortable by his presence? Maybe he was just annoying the silver-haired man or something – there are always some people you can’t stand at first sight for some unknown reason. Maybe he was one of those people for Kakashi-sensei?

Iruka sighed as entered the bathhouse, his chain of thoughts getting a bit morose. He paid the entrance fee and went to the changing room, thoughtful.

As he was changing himself, the academy teacher frowned, wondering why he was feeling depressed by that thought. What did it matter if Hatake Kakashi found him annoying? Why was he even caring in the first place? He had never given a damn about what people thought about him before! Why should it matter now? If Kakashi-sensei didn’t like him, there was nothing he could to about it, so why bother? He was stupid to even care.

Chasing those pointless morose thoughts away, the chuunin left his clothes in a nearby locker, quickly washed himself and walked to the male artificial hotspring. As he entered the bathing area, a smile graced his previously scowling features; he was being lucky to day, the bath was completely empty. All his! Feeling strangely content with himself for some unexplainable reason, Iruka sank into the hot water of the deserted bath and sighed contently as he felt his sore muscles relax into the warmth of the bath at once. Nothing was better than a good quiet bath after a hard day of work, Iruka decided. Ignoring the part of him reminding him that he sounded like an old man, the chuunin closed his eyes and let his mind wander freely and aimlessly. Soon, he found himself loosing contact with reality as he soaked into the warm water. 

Iruka was unceremoniously brought back to reality when he heard some splashing noises and giggles coming from behind the wooden wall at his left. His still a bit hazy mind vaguely informed him that the said palisade hid the women’s bath, so those sounds were probably coming from feminine customers - three young women, by the sound of it. 

Correction: three rather loud young women. 

Iruka wondered with mild annoyance what they were doing at the bathhouse so late. Not that he really cared that they were there at all - it was their right to take a bath at whatever hour they pleased. He just wished they could be more quiet about it, that was all. 

Iruka closed his eyes again slid back to his peaceful half-asleep state, trying to ignore the voices coming from the adjacent bath. But just then, something he heard caught his attention and drove him back to awareness.

“...Kakashi? Are you talking about THE Hatake Kakashi there, Aki?”

“Absolutely.”

“I don’t believe you! He doesn’t seem to be that kind of guy!”

“What do you mean? You think I’m not a trustworthy enough source?” 

“No, she’s right,” a third voice added excitedly, “I’ve seen it myself. It’s really obvious!”

“See? I told you!”

“No way! Stop making fun of me!”

“We’re dead serious, Mano-chan!”

“If it was as obvious as you pretend, the news would have circulated all around Konoha in a matter of hours! As if the famous Hatake Kakashi could fall in love without anyone talking about it!”

Those words got Iruka’s eyes shot open at once. What? In love? Hatake Kakashi? For some unknown reason, the brown-haired man suddenly felt fully aware and alert. His curiosity winning over his tiredness and his pride, the chuunin listened shamelessly to the three women gossiping on the other side of the bathhouse wall.

“The news hasn’t come up yet,” the first woman answered almost secretly. “We’ve kept it to ourselves until now, but I think more and more people are starting to suspect it. A few chuunin working with me at the mission room might have noticed it as well. It’s only a matter of time before the news spreads out!”

“Yeah, this is all exclusive stuff we’re sharing with you! Even Anko-san is not aware of it!”

“And she’s gonna be sooo green with jealousy when she learns we knew before she did!” the woman named Aki laughed evilly. 

“Ahh, stop torturing me like that already and tell me more about it!” Mano whined loudly.

“Ah, but you have to swear you won’t spill it, okay?”

“Why, I wouldn’t even dream of doing that!” 

“Okay then,” the third young woman said with excitement. “We’ve seen him. It was so obvious it’s a wonder nobody has noticed it before. Well it’s true that he has a mask that hides most of his facial expressions but...”

“Cut it already, Renyu!”

“Ah, right. Sorry. Well, whenever Kakashi’s around a... certain person... he acts totally differently: he loses his cool attitude and gets all shy and intimidated!” 

“No!”

“Yes! He can’t even manage to talk to that person correctly. Right, Aki-chan?”

“Yeah, we’ve seen it several times. Whenever that person speaks to him, he starts babbling and positively runs away like a school girl!” 

Iruka blinked, stunned by this new revelation. He had never imagined Kakashi-sensei could be that kind of man! To run away in front of his crush...! How so... unKakashi-ish! Wasn’t the man always cool and composed? This sure was unexpected.

“My, he has it hard!”

“You said it.”

“But I don’t understand why he should be so shy and afraid about it... Given he’s one weird fellow, he still has a hell of a good reputation in the ninja world! Seriously, who would, in their right mind, turn down the famous and sexy Hatake Kakashi?” the girl named Mano asked suspiciously. “Does he have the hots for a married woman or what?”

“Not exactly. You haven’t heard the juiciest part yet...!”

“Do we tell her, Aki?”

“Tell me what?” Mano all but cried.

“Well, you see... Hatake Kakashi doesn’t have the hots for a woman...”

“You mean he...?” she asked breathlessly. On the other side of the wooden palisade, Iruka felt his breath being taken away as well. A shy silence ensued. 

“I can’t believe it... So he would be into men?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“But... with the book he’s reading...!”

“I know!”

“People working at the mission room have noticed, you told me?” Mano asked thoughtfully. “So his crush would be working there? It wouldn’t be Genma or Raido-kun...?”

“No, the guy’s name is Iruka.”

For a short moment, it seemed to Umino Iruka that the Earth had stopped turning. As to imitate her, the chuunin stood frozen, staring blankly in front of him - even his heart seemed to have stopped to beat. But then, his heart came back to life as the meaning of those words truly sank in. In fact, his heart was beating so fast that it seemed as if it wanted to break out of the tanned man’s rib cage. 

What!? Kakashi-sensei liked... HIM?! No. No no no no no no, there was a mistake somewhere! Kakashi-sensei, in-in love... with him? No no no, there was a mistake; they were mistaking him for someone else for sure...! There had to be a mistake-

“Heh? Who’s that?” Iruka distantly heard the girl named Mano ask bluntly.

“You know, that tanned chuunin who always put his hair in a ponytail? He’s got a scar on his nose.”

Okay. There was no mistake. Iruka felt his cheeks burn as his heart pounded madly in his chest. So K-Kakashi-sensei...? No way! Impossible! Those women were out of their minds! How could they even come up with something so... so far-fetched? It was ridiculous!

“Him? You’re sure?”

“Absolutely!”

“What makes you so positive about it?” Mano asked a bit sceptically.

“Well... A lot of small things, actually. First off, Kakashi always come to give his mission report Iruka-sensei - and only Iruka-sensei. I know, I work at the mission room and in eight months, I’ve never seen Kakashi give his reports to anyone else - except to the Hokage, of course. That’s suspicious, right? Sometimes he walks in the mission room and when he sees his dear Iruka’s not there, he says something about having lost or forgotten his report somewhere and comes back only when Iruka’s there. For eight whole months! That’s awfully suspicious, if you ask me.”

“And he always runs away when Iruka-sensei tries to speak to him! I’ve seen at it too!”

“Yeah, he mumbles some random nonsense to have a reason to get away and totally flees like a shy schoolgirl with her first crush. That’s so not like him!” 

“Plus, he’s always hanging around the academy, faking to read his horrible little orange book. I know, I work part-time at the Academy and I can see him sometimes hiding in that big Oak tree which has a clear view of Iruka-sensei’s classes. It’s a wonder the guy never spotted him!”

“My...” Mano breathed out, sounding impressed.

“There’s more; I have a cousin working at that ramen bar, I think the name’s Ichiraku... Anyway. I questioned her and she told me Kakashi often showed up to eat ramen when Iruka was treating one of his ex-students, a good customer of the place. She found it really weird because she had never seen that man eating there before and he never comes when Iruka’s not there.” Aki said matter-of-factly. “And she told me he keeps on stealing glances at the chuunin whenever he looks away,” she whispered in a secretive way.

“Really?”

“And the other day, I heard Iruka telling someone he kept on running into Kakashi-sensei lately. Does that sound like a coincidence to you?”

“You think Kakashi would follow him around and run into him purposefully?” Mano asked in a hurry, sounding very excited.

“I’m sure of it. He’s so head over heel with the dolphin man, it’s obvious. He would do anything to be able to steal a few glances at his beloved Iruka-sensei!”

“That’s not all! You’ve not heard the best part yet!” Renyu added with glee. “You know, I heard my colleagues talking about it at lunch one day: supposedly, Iruka had found a huge box of expensive home-made chocolates on his doorstep on his birthday. He had no idea who had given those to him and was under the impression someone was pulling a trick on him. That guy’s just so clueless it kills me - Anyway! I wanted to confirm our little theory, so I visited all the specialized places selling home-made chocolates and I found out that there was only one person who had bought that kind of box in the past days. Guess who?”

“No! You’re serious?!”

“Dead serious!” Iruka started to feel it becoming harder and harder to breathe and think calmly with every argument that was brought up. He put his hand in front of his gaping mouth to muffle the sound of his erratic breathing as his brain seemed to have some difficulty catching on. All those things... It did make sense, but... But...!

“And how does that Iruka respond to him?” The woman named Mano asked after a while and Iruka couldn’t help but listen again, feeling strangely drawn to that disturbing discussion for some reason.

“Well you see, it’s quite pathetic actually... He doesn’t have a clue.”

“What? It can’t be!”

“But it’s true.”

“How can it be? I mean, with Kakashi-san hanging around him all the time like that?!”

“I know. But Iruka is just that kind of guy. He’s nice but he can be so dumb at times...”

“How sad...!”

Silence ensued again. Iruka gulped, thinking over all the argument he had heard. So... Kakashi-sensei...? Now that he thought about it, everything seemed to make sense... Kakashi’s weird attitude... The ramen bar... And the anonymous chocolate box he received...! Oh, how could he have been so blind? It was obvious that Kakashi-sensei... that he... with him...? At that thought, the chuunin felt heat rise up to his cheeks. 

“Do you think Kakashi’s got a chance with that Iruka though?” Mano suddenly asked, and Iruka’s attention went back again to the discussion.

“Definitely.” Heh?

“Yeah, we think he’s gay.” HEH!?

“Really?”

“Well, he’s 28 and he’s never had any known girlfriend. Some people close to him told me he’s never dated a girl before. Never! That’s definitely not normal - especially since he’s otherwise a good match: rather handsome, mature, safe. And he loves children too.”

“And most importantly, he doesn’t even seem to be attracted to women at all.”

“Yeah, and we’re not the only ones suspecting he might be into men: Anko’s under that impression as well.” 

Whoa, wait! Anko thought h-he...? 

Oh. Shit. 

Iruka passed his hands in his dark hair as panic suddenly overcame him. This was worse that anything he’d imagined... It was common knowledge Anko was the biggest gossip machine of the whole village. What Anko knew, everybody knew! Now the whole village was ought to think he was gay! Oh God, what had he done to deserve that...?! 

“She told me as well that Iruka has shown a very suspect interest in Kakashi lately...!” the woman giggled and Iruka suddenly felt like bagging his head against the wooden palissade. 

He truly was the biggest jerk of the town. Of course, his sudden curiosity about the silver-haired man couldn’t have gone unnoticed for long. It was ought to be discovered sooner or later by Anko or Awaki; they knew everything that happened in that damn village. Who had he been kidding anyway, telling himself that nobody would notice anything if he was subtle enough? Subtle enough! They lived in a goddamned ninja village! The whole village was full of paranoids who spent already far too much time imagining plots, let alone discovering truths. If he would have been able to, the academy teacher would have hid himself under a rock and never showed up again. 

“And you have to take into account that we’re not talking about any random guy; we’re talking about the famous Sharigan Hatake Kakashi... Seriously, who in their right mind would turn down such a guy?” Aki pointed out with a touch of a leer. 

“Yeah, and he’s so sexy too! So cool, so... mysterious!” Mano giggled. “And I heard he’s quite handsome under that mask of his!”

“Handsome, you say? Ha! He’s drop-dead gorgeous!” Aki burst out.

“Really?” the two women asked with obvious interest.

“I’ve got first-hand info about it,” she said smugly. “My cousin working at the ramen bar got to see his face twice!”

“Waa, she’s so lucky!”

“Yeah!”

“No, the one who’s lucky is Iruka-sensei!” they all giggled.

“It’s a shame he’s too clueless to even take advantage of his luck...”

“Speaking of which, have you heard about Yagami-kun?”

“Heard what?”

And so on went their carefree discussion, but Iruka wasn’t even listening to them anymore. Instead, he was thinking hard about what he had heard, replaying every word of that strange discussion he had spied on. 

So Kakashi had... feelings for him? He would have never imagined... But it did, afterall, make sense. It was just... so sudden. So unexpected. That revelation left the chuunin strangely numb for some reason. As if he couldn’t get accustommed to the idea. To think he had thought the jounin hated him! It was almost funny... in a strange, disturbing kind of way.

Then, the academy teacher’s chain of thought went to the lastest - and perhaps the most troubling - part of the discussion and he frowned, feeling suddenly uneasy. 

Could he be... gay? Sure enough, he had never truly felt attracted to a woman before, but that didn’t mean he was automatically homosexual... Of course not. And it was not because those-those gossipers thought he was gay that it meant they were right about it. But, strangely enough, the thought of being gay didn’t disturb him as much as it should have. Nor did the idea of going out with Kakashi-sensei...

Kakashi-sensei... Iruka felt his cheeks blush even more at the thought of the man. He still couldn’t quite believe the famous silver-haired man liked him that way. It was... so unexpected, so fast! Those thoughts left the chuunin with a strange knot of mixed feelings in his gust. Iruka truly needed some time to think it all over. To decide what he would do about it... Yeah, he needed time...

Silently, so that the three women in the adjacent bath wouldn’t hear him, the brown-haired chuunin left the hotspring and went to the changing room, a thoughtful frown maring his features.

\----

“...Is he gone?”

“Yeah, he left the place.” The woman named Aki answered coldly. At once, the three naked women gossiping in the hotprings exploded into clouds of smoke yo revealed two young men and one young kunoichi in swimming trunks.

“Waaa! It’s so unfair! Why did I have to play Mano? She was the dullest character!” Naruto whined loudly, stretching his muscled arms behind his head.

“So you wouldn’t screw up,” was Sasuke’s straight answer.

“Why you-!”

“Do you think it’ll work?” interrupted the pink-haired woman anxiously.

“That’s what we’ll see soon. We did what we could; now it’s up to them to sort out their feelings. Let’s just wait and see what happens,” Naruto grinned, sinking deeper into the water as he let his whole body melt into the warmth. “Ahh, this bath is sure nice~”

“Naruto! You jerk, this is a women’s hotspring!” 

“So what? There’s nobody around!”

“Idiot!” Sakura yelled, punching the blond-haired man on the head.

“Let’s just hope it’ll work out,” Sasuke said quietly to no one in particular as Sakura was trying to beat the hell out of a whining Naruto. 

\----

That night, Hatake Kakashi kept on sneezing, for some unknown reason.

...He would buy some cold medecine first thing in the morning, he decided.


	2. Chapter 2

“Have you noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

The four children were sitting on the sun-bathed grass outside the ninja academy, eating their home-made lunch while chatting sociably. They preferred eating outside when the weather was nice like that. Plus, the cafeteria was always so full it was hard to find a place to eat anyway.

“Iruka-sensei,” the red-haired girl explained quietly, “He’s acting weird today.”

“Of course I have. It’s so obvious!” her friend answered in an exasperated tone and the dark-haired boy sitting beside her nodded seriously. The fourth child stared at them in turn, a puzzled expression showing on his boyish face.

“Heh? Really!? I’ve noticed nothing!”

“You would have if you hadn’t slept all the time, Taro!”

“Heh heh, I guess so,” the boy named Taro laughed sheepishly.

“You only woke up when the bell rang too! And after that, you wanted to borrow my notes again!” the brown-haired girl added on an annoyed tone.

“It’s not my fault!” the boy protested weakly, “Iruka-sensei didn’t wake me up!”

“ _See_? I told you he’s been acting weird! Iruka-sensei usually doesn’t let _a-ny-one_ sleep in his classes! There’s definitely something wrong with him!”

“You think he’s sick?” the soft-spoken girl asked anxiously.

“He’s not sick, he’s just distracted.”

“Heh? Distracted? _Our_ Iruka-sensei?” Taro asked incredulously.

“Yeah. He spaces out a lot and keeps on looking through the window.”

“What do you guys think’s going on?”

“Hum... Maybe he just wants to go play outside as well?”

“Stop saying stupid things already, Taro!” the brown-haired girl snapped at her friend with annoyment.

“Hey, do you think he would notice if we skipped class this afternoon?” the dark-haired boy suddenly spoke up hopefully.

“Heh?! You’re crazy Yaruha!”

“ _What?_ In his state, he probably wouldn’t even notice we’re not there!”

“And what if he caught us?”

“Caught you doing what?”

The four children sprang around, breath taken in their little throats. Leaning over them, Umino Iruka was watching them sternly, his hands on his hips and a scowl on his mouth.

“N-nothing!” they tried to convince him uneasily, fidgeting guiltily under the brown-haired man’s piercing stare. Their teacher gave them a skeptical look.

“I hope so for you,” the man commented dryly. At the sight of the obviously guilty faces the children gave him, Iruka had to suppress an amused smirk. Children were so cute sometimes.

“What are you doing outside? It’s chilly. Shouldn’t you be eating at the cafeteria with the others?” he asked them with mock suspicion and the children visibly relaxed.

“Hugh, _no!_ ”

“The cafeteria’s always loaded!”

“Plus, they’re serving fish today and their fish smells like _boiled socks_!” the brown-haired girl grimaced and her friends voiced fervently their agreement. Iruka’s eyebrow raised with amusement at the original expression. Deciding to ignore the small voice in him that wanted to ask the child what did boiled socks smell like, Iruka told the kids to watch out not to catch a cold and the four student nodded seriously, obviously relieved of the turn out of the discussion. The academy teacher was about to walk away when the red-haired girl spoke up.

“Ano, Iruka-sensei?” the girl asked hesitantly.

“What is it, Juuri?” the brown-haired man replied on an encouraging voice.

“I wanted to know... Are you sick, sensei?”

“Sick?” Iruka stared at the small girl, surprised. “No, I’m not. Why do you ask?”

“Well, you look a little weird today...” the shy girl explained quietly.

“Yeah!” her friends agreed at once, suddenly looking both excited and curious.

“Yeah, you’ve got this blank look on your face - as if you were thinking about something very very far away!”

“Really?”

“And you keep on staring at the big tree outside!”

That last comment took Iruka aback and a small blush rose to his cheeks. “The tree...?” he muttered to himself. “Was I...?”

“Heh? Why are you blushing, Iruka-sensei?” his student asked him, confusion and mild worry showing on their young faces. At the sight of their perky faces, Iruka fought his blush away, determined not to worry his students over such stupid issues.

“You don’t have to worry, I’m fine. I’m just a bit tired, that’s all,” the academy teacher answered casually, giving them his most honest smile and it seemed to convince the kids, to Iruka’s relief. Before his students could ask him anything else, the chuunin smiled and walked away, intending to go back to his classroom to eat his own lunch and prepare his afternoon classes. Just before entering the academy, the teacher looked back at the kids, who where whispering to one another in a quite suspicious way.

“You guys better not try to skip class!” he warned them loudly through the recess yard, glaring sternly at them. With some satisfaction, he saw them stop whispering and turn around to look at him with guilty eyes, squirming uneasily under his gaze.

“N-no!”

“We won’t!”

“I hope so for you,” Iruka warned them as he entered the academy.

Closing the door behind him, Iruka couldn’t fight back a small smile; kids never learned... If he ever was to show any sign of weakness, they tried to use it against him, as if they thought that they honestly stood a chance against their chuunin teacher when he was tired or had a cold. It was kinda cute, when you put aside the fact that what they had in mind was probably far from innocent. That thought brought a bitter grimace to his lips. He was going to have a rough afternoon, that was for sure. Especially now that he had shown weakness by looking so distracted. In his profession, showing weakness usually meant a good deal of trouble and a serious case of headache by the end of the day. Iruka sighed at the thought.

Thinking back of the discussion he just had with his students, Iruka felt ashamed of his unusual lack of self-control and professionalism. Even the kids had noticed something was troubling him, and that was a bad sign. True, he _did_ have trouble to concentrate all morning long, but he had never imagined it showed so much...! Especially since he usually was good at hiding those kind of things to his students - years of working with those little hellions obliged. But on this defense, he had never felt this tormented by his own thoughts before.

Damn those gossipers for messing with his mind! Ever since he had overheard their stupid discussion the night before, he hadn’t been able to get it out of his mind. Their words were following him everywhere, haunting him like the plague. They brought up questions that kept on torturing his mind and made him both restless and distracted - he had said the truth when he had told the kids he was tired, since he had barely slept at all the night before. In the morning, he had stared at his cereal bowl for twenty minutes, his head so full of questions that he even forgot to eat them. When he finally snapped out of his reverie, his cereal where so soaked with milk that the thing was barely still eatable. He had thought that he would get an hold of himself back at work, but even in his own classroom, Iruka couldn’t concentrate on the lesson he was supposed to teach. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t help but think again of what he had heard those strangers say.

He couldn’t help thinking of Hatake Kakashi.

The chuunin sighed at the thought. Well, the very idea of Kakashi-sensei being in love with him was disturbing enough to start with, it was no wonder he was so upset...! Iruka still couldn’t get used to that idea. Some part of him refused to accept it, refused to think it was even possible. But then again, the women’s arguments had been so convincing... It all made so much sense. The brown-haired man had tried to persuade himself during the night that those arguments didn’t mean anything, but he knew the only one he was trying to kid was himself - the thought of Kakashi-sensei liking him and everything it implied made him so uneasy! He had never been placed in such a situation before and had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to act toward the silver-haired man now. Should he do as if nothing happened? Should he ignore him? Or should he confront him? And if he did, what was he supposed to tell him? He... He didn’t even know what he _felt_ about the whole thing... So how was he supposed to know what to do about it?

Iruka sighed with frustration at the thought. The more he thought about it, the less he knew what to do... And unfortunately for him, it was not the kind of thing you can stop thinking about so easily. Heh, you didn’t learn everyday that someone - someone you believed hated you - was head over heels in love with you. Iruka kept on telling himself that it was only normal to be thrown off balance by such news. Yes, it was probably a normal thing.

He jus hoped it would end up soon.

Feeling mentally exhausted by all that thinking, the academy teacher entered the deserted classroom and sat heavily on his wooden chair, rubbing his temples. Looking up, he saw his home-made bento waiting for him on the corner of the desk and felt something sink in him as he remembered he had come back to the classroom to eat his own dinner. Somehow, all this thinking drained him not only of his energy and concentration, but of his appetite as well. He gave a half-hearted regretful look to his lunch. The truth was he wasn’t feeling like eating at all... On the other hand, he couldn’t let it go to waste like that, that would be wrong.

Iruka contemplated eating it for supper. That way, he wouldn’t have to cook. But he didn’t like much eating a cold lunch for supper; it didn’t seem appropriate. Then, the thought of sharing it with his coworkers came to his mind. His fellow academy teachers were probably eating together at the teacher lounge, sharing anecdotes and thoughtless blah blah as they usually did during the lunch break. He could pay them a visit. Not that visiting them tempted him a lot, but it might distract him a bit from his never ending questioning... Definitely, it was worth a try, he thought as he got up and took his bento with him to the teachers’ lounge. At this point, any distraction was more than welcome.

As he passed in front the classroom’s immense window, his eyes drifted to the landscape, stopping absent-mindedly on the big Oat tree that was standing in the middle of the courtyard. When he realized he was staring at the said tree, he mentally slapped himself, feeling a bit ashamed for some unexplainable reason. He didn’t know why, but since he learned that Kakashi used it to... spy on him, he had felt an irresistible longing to look at it. Even the kids had noticed it. Maybe he secretly wished to see Kakashi hiding in it... Wait, that was just ridiculous.

Iruka tore his eyes away from the tree and left the classroom, heading for his coworkers’ hideout. As he approached his destination, he heard his fellow academy teachers’ voices getting louder and louder in the student-free academy even thought they were obviously trying to keep their voices low. They were probably shamelessly ruining someone’s reputation again... The thought brought an amused smirk to Iruka’s lips. Oh, what they said was not exactly mean or dangerous! Well, most of the time, it wasn’t... it was just gossip afterall. Whatever unbelievable or shameful story they came up with, it only interested them for a short while and was soon forgotten afterward. You could say that it was kind of their hobby. Some people liked to do ikebana, other enjoyed gardening. Iruka preferred reading books. As for the academy teachers of Konoha, they just loved to share rumors and speculate about people’s private lives. It was their thing. Iruka had never been much of a gossiper himself and preferred staying away from their discussions, so they wouldn’t force him to voice out his opinion concerning the latest juicy news they’d heard. That was one of the reasons why he used not to eat lunch with them to start with.

He knew pretty well that by not staying at the teacher lounge on lunch time, he gave his colleagues the occasion to talk about him behind his back but he couldn’t care less. It wasn’t like there was anything to say about him to start with; he was probably the most normal and ordinary chuunin in the whole village. Some even qualified his lifestyle to be “dull” or “boring”. The brown-haired man hardly ever did or said anything that could raise suspicion or shock anyone. He would be damned if they found something scandalous to say about him! And even if they did, Iruka liked to think that what people thought of him didn’t matter much to him anyway.

He was about to knock when he clearly heard his name somewhere in their discussion, which suprised him. They were talking about _him_? What for? At once, his amused smile was replaced by a slight frown as he stopped dead on his track. He had not intended to eavesdrop - especially after what happened yesterday evening! - he couldn’t help but listen to what they were saying, his curiosity getting the best of him.

“...That’s so unlike him!”

“You think he’s sick or something?”

“Umino Iruka, sick? You must be dreaming!” someone commented dryly and a few people could be heard snorting.

“Maybe he overdid it… He snapped. He burns the candle at both ends, that Iruka. It was bound to happen one day or another...”

“Don’t draw a conclusion from it too fast. He might just be a little tired for all we know. It’s human after all.”

“Since you’re talking about it, have you ever seen him tired before? I tell you, that guy’s not normal-” There was an annoyed sigh.

“Oh, don’t bring it up again! I’ve had enough of it already!”

“No, seriously! We are in the best position to know how watching over pre-genin is demanding, right? All of us, we all snapped at a time or another. Right?” There was a murmur of agreement. “But that Umino guy hasn’t! He’s never lost it! In 9 years of teaching, he has _never_ lost it! Always so controlled and strict! Always well-organized and fresh-looking, even when _everybody_ else is overworked... That’s definitely not normal! Nobody could endure that much and still be nice and everything! I tell you, there’s something out of place with him.”

Iruka’s eyebrow rose in the air skeptically. He never thought Higari-sensei - because he was pretty sure that was Higari-sensei’s voice - felt that way about him. Not that he truly cared of what that guy thought of him - he has always considered him to be a moron anyway. Iruka felt sorry for the students Higari was assigned to.

“Yeah, I always thought he was a bit fishy...”

“Are you listening to yourselves? You’re talking about Iruka like he’s unpleasant just because he can cope better than you do with this job’s stress. I think he’s a nice guy.”

“We’re not saying that he’s not nice, but... Now that you said it, Higari-kun... Iruka always seem so perfect, so in-control... And not only him, but his classes too. It’s annoying somehow...”

“And he’s _never_ slipped before too... Unbelievable, isn’t...?”

“Well that might explain why he’s acting so weird today,” someone muttered in a mysterious voice. “Being distracted, spacing out like that... He might be about to snap...” Iruka’s frown deepened; was he as distracted as his coworkers were alluding? Did it show that much? It was one thing for his students to notice, but his _coworkers_...

“You think so?” inquired an obviously worried woman.

“I bet he’s not able to keep his mask in place anymore... I tell you, we’ll see the true Iruka soon!” Higari-sensei burst out almost proudly. Behind the lounge door, Iruka rolled his eyes with exasperation. Oh God, that guy was such a jerk!

“Don’t you think you’re pushing it too much?” said a voice Iruka recognized to be Uutaru’s, the purple-haired woman teaching in the classroom next to his. “You make him sound like he’s a monster or something. Okay, he’s a bit strange, but he seems to be a nice and caring person on the whole. His students seem to love him too.” The brown-haired chuunin eavesdropping outside the teacher lounge suddenly felt his appreciation of Uutaru-sensei raise of a few notches.

“But we don’t know what he does to them in the classroom, don’t we?” Higari muttered sneakily.

“Are you trying to say...?”

“Oh, _come on_!”

“You’re overdoing it. Afterall, Sandaime had the highest esteem of him.”

“Well, it never came to your mind that it might be the reason why he got his post to begin with-?” Iruka had heard enough. Just then, he knocked on the door and, without further warning, entered the room. In the teachers’ lounge, everyone froze and a tense silence fell on the small group of chuunins at his sudden and quite unexpected appearance. Everybody seemed to hold their breath, waiting for something - the fact that they didn’t even know what they were waiting for only increasing their wariness. A question was written all over their faces: _What had he heard exactly?_

So they wouldn’t imagine he had been spying on them, Iruka did his best to look totally normal and unconcerned as he greeted them - although it was hard to resist the urge to burst out laughing when he looked at Higari-sensei’s shaken face, which was suddenly suspiciously pale. Not so courageous anymore, was he?

If he wouldn’t have been aggravated by their immaturity, he would have felt sorry for them, seeing their obvious uneasiness. But, if they wouldn’t have been so absorbed by their discussion, they would have felt him coming. There were supposed to be shinobi, afterall. As far as he was concerned, they had it coming.

“What’s wrong?” Iruka asked with faked confusion at the strange ambiance.

“Ah, nothing’s wrong Iruka-sensei,” Uutaru answered him with a hypocrite smile and she just lost the esteem she had previously gained. “We’re just surprised to see you here; you don’t eat lunch with us often.”

“No, I don’t,” The chuunin admitted with a small smile before putting his bento on the nearest desk. “In fact, I only came to share my lunch with you. I’m not hungry and I thought it would be a shame to put it to waste without even touching it.”

“That’s nice of you.” Iruka saw in the corner of his eyes Higari staring cautiously at the innocent box. The chuunin was about to say them goodbye when Kimishito-sensei, a young and usually silent teacher, spoke up from behind his peers.

“Iruka-sensei... Are you okay? You don’t look like yourself today.” At his words, everyone set their avid eyes on the said chuunin, analyzing him with a disturbingly piercing curiosity. Iruka gulped nervously, uneasy with the sudden hungry attention he was given.

“Do I?” he tried to sound surprised. “No, I’m fine Kimishito-sensei.”

“Don’t try to fool us, you’ve been acting strangely all day long. Even your students have noticed it,” someone replied him. Iruka sighed, rubbing absent-mindedly the bridge of his nose. Why did they all have to make a big story out of it? They needed to get themselves a life...

“You know, you can go home if you feel you’re about to... slip,” Kimishito said tactfully, eyeing him cautiously. “I’m free this afternoon, so I can watch over your class.”

“Oh, no no, that won’t be necessary,” he assured him hastily, overwhelmed by the stupidity of the situation. “It’s nothing like that! I’m not going to lose it or anything,” He could have sworn he saw disappointment on some of their faces.

“So what’s bothering you?” someone asked frankly.

“Hum...” Iruka hesitated. There was no way the brown-haired chuunin could tell them he was distracted because he just overheard the most mysterious and famous jounin in town was in love with him. He could have told them some quick lie to escape that awkward situation - for example, that he hadn’t had enough sleep last night, which was true to some extent - but then he decided against it. Why did they need to know what was bothering him anyway? It wasn’t their business. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to satisfy their curiosity, even with made-up excuses.

“Let’s say personal matters,” the chuunin answered impassively, hoping they would be satisfied with that explanation and wouldn’t harass him further. Some part of him doubted it, though.

“Is that so?”

“Is there anything we can do to help you?” Kimishito-sensei asked him.

“No, I don’t think so,” Iruka answered shortly, frowning at their annoying insistence. He hoped they wouldn’t imagine themselves some far-fetched scenario with what he just told them, but judging by the aroused curiosity that was lighting up their faces, his situation was already beyond repair. Iruka inwardly sighed. At least speculating on which aspect of his private life was disturbing him would keep them busy all the afternoon long, and even the next day if he was lucky enough. And it wasn’t like he cared of whatever story they could come up with. Their innocent gossips could not affect him anyway, and it was not like he cared.

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?” a colleague asked on a mildly hopeful tone.

“Aw, come on Iruka-sensei! Don’t be so secretive about it! You sound like a school girl with her first crush!”

These words had a strange effect on Iruka, who somehow found himself associating the words “first crush” and “Kakashi-sensei” together. For some unknown reason, this disturbing association didn’t go unnoticed in his head. His eyes suddenly shot wide open and he felt heat rise to his tanned cheeks at the very thought of what had just crossed his mind - whatever what it was.

“Iruka-sensei? You’re... blushing,” someone was kind enough to point out.

“N-no, I’m not! I’m just-”

“Ohhhhhh!” The feminine members of the staff giggled quietly.

“Oh ho ho! Who’s the lucky girl, Iruka-sensei?” someone male coworker punched him on the arm, a knowing smirk on his lips.

“Heh? N-no, it’s nothing like that-!” Iruka started to protest, but just then, the bell could be heard through the academy, announcing the end of the lunch break. Was it already 1 o’clock? But he had wanted to illustrate the blackboard with graphics for the afternoon class during that break! He was running late! All protestations forgotten, Iruka apologized briefly for his hasty departure and positively ran out of the teachers’ lounge to his class, hoping he would be able to make it on time. The other chuunins could only watch him as he flew away, adorning a little knowing smile.

“Well, well! Who woul have imagined? Our little Iruka-sensei finally finding love...!”

“I always thought he would stay a bachelor all his life long, too.”

“I hope the girl he likes won’t turn him down...!” Kimishito declared softly.

“Girl? I don’t remember hearing him saying something about a woman.”

“Heh? What are you trying to say?”

“Ew, Matsuba! That would be just sick!”

“I always thought he swung that way myself...” Higari commented with an amused smirk.

“Oh, we’re not going to talk about that **_again_**!”

“Hurry up guys if you don’t want to be late for your classes...!”

\--

“Sorry for my lateness!”

Those were words Iruka had not heard himself say often - obviously, neither had his coworkers, judging by the surprised look on their faces. And not only them; somehow, the whole mission room found itself staring at the helplessly late chuunin like there was something _Wrong_. Embarrassed by those slightly worried or curious glances people were giving him, the chuunin did his best not to bring too much attention to himself as he hastily made his way through the files of tired nins awaiting to dispose of their mission reports to install himself at his designated desk. At once, he started receiving and checking reports, trying to ignore the sidelong glances his coworkers were giving him.

He couldn’t believe he arrived late! Him, who was always on time! Plus, his class had finished earlier than usual - in his current state of mind, he hadn’t been able to stand his students’ turbulence, which only seemed to increase their boldness and he ended up sending them back home earlier than usual. He had therefore found himself with more free time than usual before his shift at the mission room started, yet he had still managed to spend so much time fussing over his awkward situation to arrive late at work nonetheless! He felt so ashamed...!

When the 5 o’clock rush finally came to an end, Iruka let himself sink in his chair, sighing. He closed his sore eyes - he was starting to suffer from staying up all night thinking instead of sleeping - and rubbed them in slow patterns. It had been such a long day...

“...Iruka-san?” the chuunin opened his burning eyes, advertising his gaze to his fellow coworkers, who were staring at him with mildly worried faces. He closed his eyes again tiredly, knowing far too well what was coming.

“...What is it?” he asked roughly.

“Are you okay? You don’t look like yourself today...” For some reason, it was starting to annoy him. So what if he looked _a little bit_ unfocused? It happened to everybody to have bad days! What did they all think he was, a robot? He wasn’t invulnerable, for God’s sake...! To think that all this fuss had started because of some stupid gossips he had overheard at the bathhouse... _Gossips_...!

“I’m fine,” he sighed lifelessly.

“You’re sure? You look-”

“Please, spare me that not-looking-like-yourself crap already, I’ve had it all day long,” Iruka breathed in what he had intended to be an imperative tone, but it sounded more pleading than anything else. Great, now he managed to look even weaker. His eyes still closed, the brown-haired man sighed again, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. The room was mostly silent - exept for the mouthed words his coworkers were exchanging in an almost secretive way. Hmph. As if Iruka couldn’t tell they were speaking of him. They could _at least_ wait until he left to start gossiping on him like that. Bunch of disrespectful idiots... But for now, he had other matters in mind. Or, to be accurate, he had one big silver-haired problem in mind.

What was he supposed to think of all of this? And what if he was fussing over some made-up story? Afterall, it was only a gossip... But, with all the details he had heard, Iruka had to admit it was pretty unlikely to be false... Damn. Damn damn damn! What was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to react when he saw Kakashi again? What was he supposed to think...? Ahh, it was so troublesome! Iruka almost wished he had had the presence of mind to leave the bathhouse when those noisy girls had appeared. If only...

Just then, Iruka heard something being set down quietly on his desk. He opened his eyes and stared blankly at a steaming cup of coffee in front of him. Somebody had misinterpreted his emotional distress for tiredness and had been thoughtful enough to bring him a coffee. How cute. That surprising and somewhat very sweet attention brought a small tired smile to his lips as he looked up to thank his coworker for his/her kindness. He did not, however, expect to see a mask and a mass of unmanageable silver hair where was supposed to stand one of his coworkers.

“K-Kakashi-sensei!” the chuunin croaked, startled. Unfortunately for him, jumping when you were half-lying in a mission-room wooden chair didn’t do well. Iruka learned it the hard way when he and the said chair gracelessly fell on the floor in an ear breaking racket. Mentally cursing his sudden clumsiness, the brown-haired man hastily got to his feet, his cheeks burning in embarrassment.

He couldn’t believe he had fell on the floor just like that! He was a ninja goddammit! Ninja did _not_ fall of their chairs because they were surprised! That was _so_ humiliating! Now the whole mission room was staring at him like he had grown a second head...!

“You alright, Iruka?” he heard someone ask him not too far away.

“Y-yes! I’m sorry. I guess I’m a bit stressed,” the brown-haired man explained weakly, a little nervous laugh escaping his mouth. Carefully avoiding the jounin’s gaze, the brown-haired man nervously put up his chair from the floor and sat on it slowly, trying to regain some composure. Inside his chest, his heart was beating so fast it seemed like it wanted to break through his rib cage. Calm down, Iruka! You meet with him almost everyday, there’s nothing to be afraid of!

Nervously, Iruka advertised his gaze to the man standing in front of him. Hatake Kakashi was staring blankly at him, his only visible eyebrow raised high to show his bewilderment and Iruka felt his cheeks heating up once again. Glancing down from the man’s somehow unnerving gray eye, Iruka noticed that his uniform looked torn and stained - some blots looked suspiciously like blood. The jounin was probably coming back from a long mission again, Iruka guessed. Another B-ranked mission that turned out uglily - the Copy nin seemed to always get those somehow.

“G-good afternoon, Kakashi-sensei,” Iruka spluttered, smiling uneasily at the silver-haired man.

“Yo,” the jounin answered casually, looking like his nonchalant self.

There was a short uneasy silence.

“Erm, thanks a lot for the coffee,” the chuunin managed to say half-heartfully, a painful polite smile on his lips.

The Sharigan user said nothing. Silence stretched on between them once again and when Kakashi realized that Iruka was waiting for him to say something back, he looked away.

“... I decided to grab a coffee on my way here, but you look like you need it more than me,” the ex-anbu said on his usual bored tone, as if it was the most trivial thing in the world. _As if!_ Nobody would think of grabbing a coffee just after coming back from a long mission! They usually went straight home, took a shower and went to bed. Kakashi-sensei probably showed up to hand in his mission report and, seeing the state he was in, decided to go buy him a coffee... That simple idea made Iruka’s guts flutter in the weirdest way. And why did it sound to him like Kakashi was trying to justify himself? Was he imagining things? And why was he looking away like that anyway? Could it be that he was... _embarrassed_? Then... Then...!

“Y-you shouldn’t have,” Iruka said uneasily, willing all those questions and speculations away from his mind.

There was another shy silence. Then Kakashi dig from one of his pocket a mission report and handed it to him. Iruka took it silently, checking it absent-mindedly. A long-mission, just like he had thought. For those, nins were usually given extra time to back home and rest a bit before submitting them in... And Hatake Kakashi wasn’t exactly known for submitting his reports on time either... Moreover, that report obviously looked like it had been done in a hurry very recently - like on the corner of a coffee table, as its owner was passing his order... Was that a coffee strain on the corner...? Iruka’s throat tightened painfully and his heart pounded harder in his chest.

“Everything looks in order. Thank you for your hard work,” he declared quietly, his eyes never leaving the sheet. He felt more than he saw Kakashi nod slowly. The jounin stayed there a moment silently, as if he was about to say something. In the end, he turned around and left without saying a word.

Okay. It was now official. The verdict fell on Iruka like a ton, leaving him breathless as he watched helplessly the jounin’s back go away.

Hatake Kakashi was in love with him.

... How could he have been so blind all that time? It was obvious...! So obvious he felt a bit shameful for not noticing it before now. All those clues and strange reactions pointed toward the same logical conclusion - a very sudden conclusion Iruka found himself trying to digest on his mission room wooden chair on a sunny Tuesday evening. He was staring distantly at the not-so-warm-anymore coffee the Copy nin had just so kindly given him, his cheeks still wearing a slight blush, unaware of the agitated whispers and the long amused glances his coworkers were already exchanging.

The rest of the shift passed under his eyes and, before he knew it, he was standing outside his apartment’s door, staring at it blankly. Sighing, he leaned his back against it, looking at the stars absent-mindedly. _So what now...?_

Somewhere in Konoha, another man was sighing as he stared at the sky, the soft caress of the wind making him shiver lightly under his soaked bathrobe. _If only..._

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

Iruka was sipping his tea slowly. He did not have often enough time to enjoy a cup of tea like that in an authentic kissaten (tea house). Between academy work, mission room duties, random C-ranked missions and Naruto, he seldom had time to himself these days. It was such a pity, because it felt truly relaxing to take the time to... to just appreciate time. Hm. He wasn’t sure it made sense, but he didn’t truly care.

All around him, people were chatting sociably in a low tone, their voices melting together to create a very unique orchestra, where cacophony and harmony couldn’t be told clearly from one another. Strange, how those voices felt somewhat reassuring. In the past days, voices like those had only brought him worries and uneasiness, but now those voices had a certain soothing effect on him. As if he was in a different universe, with different rules, where words weren’t trying to express anything, where they were mere sounds put together to form this particular music - an human music.

Iruka frowned slightly at the thought of those whispers that had been following him around for the past few days. They made him feel uneasy. And he had a good reason to feel that way; he couldn’t enter a public area without feeling people stealing glances at him and talking more or less subtly to one another - talking of him, of course. As if he was the main protagonist of a very disturbing and scandalous public affair. Some strangers stared at him in a disapproving way, young women shared high-pitched laughs on his passage, while others just looked somewhat sad for him, as if he was to pity. Iruka knew there was something big going on - something concerning him, moreover. Something the whole village was aware of.

Except for him.

Of course, what other people thought of him didn’t truly matter! It had never been bothered by such things and didn’t want to start to now. But... but somehow, Umino Iruka couldn’t help but feel uneasy at all that unhealthy attention he was given, that was all.

After a while, Iruka had come to the logical conclusion that there was probably some mildly sensational rumor going on about him. Which, when you thought about it, wasn’t such a big deal. In spite of his young age, the brown-haired man knew well human nature, and he knew gossips usually didn’t last long. People grew bored of them after a while, since there’s a limit to the time you can spend commenting the same useless little piece of information. Of course, the fact that he was known to be such a normal, boring person probably brought even more attention to himself, now that there was something scandalous to say about him. It made it all even _juicier_ , Iruka contemplated a bit bitterly. Soon enough, he reminded himself, all those gossipers would find something more interesting to babble about and forget about him altogether, and that was for the best.

Iruka had also wisely decided he didn’t want to know what those rumors were about. People would forget about them anyway, so it couldn’t affect him. And if it couldn’t affect him, there was no point knowing what kind of horrible and/or possibly sick story someone had come up with and spred through the village.

Plus, he had already heard people gossiping about himself before and certainly did _not_ want to renew the experience.

The young man sighed, sipping his tea absent-mindedly again. It had been five days since that fateful evening at the bathhouse - where he learned things that should have remained unknown to him. Or at least, he shouldn’t have learned them that way. The more practical part of his mind commented dryly that it could have been worse; he could have learned it directly from the Copy nin’s mouth in an official confession. Yes, of course, _that_ would have been worse. But surely enough he could have learned it in a softer way... How, he didn’t know, but he firmly believed it could have been possible.

As to what he was supposed to think of it... He preferred not thinking about it. Not because he was scared or because he was a coward. Simply because he didn’t know what to do about it and wanted to let dust settle a bit in his mind so he could see clear through it afterward. Iruka firmly believed that was the best thing to do for now. Being obsessed by it wouldn’t solve his problem, so there was no point overreacting. Luckily enough, he hadn’t run into Kakashi since their last encounter on Tuesday evening in the mission room, which left him even more time to think about the right attitude to adopt toward the “problem”. Or at least, it left him more time before their next ‘confrontation’, and he couldn’t honestly say that he was trying to prepare himself for it. Quite the opposite.

Anyhow, Iruka genuinely hoped he wouldn’t run into Hatake Kakashi any time soon.

It was funny actually; to think that merely a week ago, he had been trying to get closer to the man and that he was now wishing to stay as far as possible from the famous jounin. Iruka snorted at the thought. Life was so ironical sometimes...

As he took another sip of his tea, the chuunin looked at his watch and sighed. Slowly, he paid for his order and left the quiet cacophony of the kissaten, making his way to the mission room to start his shift. On his way to his workplace, the academy teacher tried his best to ignore people who stared at him and whispered on his passage, keeping his gaze steady to the road under his feet. Soon enough, he reached the mission room’s transparent doors, through which he could see the room buzzing with people chatting to one another sociably, although only a few of them seemed to be waiting to hand in their mission reports. Hn, they were probably waiting for something else. Or _someone_ else...

Damn. And now he had become some kind of show even at his workplace.

Sighing heavily, Iruka entered the room. When he made his entrance, the whole room fell strangely silent for a short moment before returning to its previous noisiness, people pretending to be there for a reason or another. Doing as if he hadn’t noticed people staring more or less subtly at him, Iruka seated himself at his desk and started his shift as if there was nothing wrong.

They would grow bored of him soon, he kept on telling himself. Soon enough.

The afternoon passed by atrociously slowly for Umino Iruka, who did his best to seem oblivious to people’s sudden interest for him. Not that he fooled anyone, but at least if he kept up pretending he didn’t notice their curious glaces, they wouldn’t harass him with questions. And that strategy seemed to work so far, as nobody had dared to ask him doubtful questions yet.

As the end of his shift drew near, Iruka wished for nothing more than being left alone in some quiet, gossip-free place as his ears pounded painfully from all that noise always surrounding him wherever he went. A quiet and isolated place... like his bedroom, for example. Yes, his bed would be nice... The chuunin surprisingly enough found himself yawning at the thought. He must have been more tired than he had thought...

As he was about to finish his never ending shift, the Hokage’s personal assistant, Shizune, showed up. Iruka, like everybody else, was taken by surprise when he saw her walk straight to him and stop in front of him.

“Would you be Umino Iruka?” she inquired politely. The whole room suddenly turned very silent, everybody listening avidly to whatever the Hokage’s assistant could want with the mild-mannered chuunin.

“Yes, I am,” the brown-haired man answered as politely.

“The Hokage would like to have a discussion with you,” the woman announced him and the academy teacher stared at her, surprised. Rapidly, he overcame his initial surprise and started to feel nervous about this sudden summon. The Hokage, summoning _him_?! This couldn’t be good. Her tone had been far too official to mean anything good, he thought anxiously. A febrile murmur passed through the room, the whole mission room now devouring the chuunin with their eyes. Gulping, Iruka silently nodded and followed her anxiously out of the mission room as she led the way to the Godaime’s office.

What was that about? What could the Hokage, of all people, possibly want with _him_? He was just some average chuunin and the Godaime and him weren’t even on speaking terms anyway. Iruka honestly couldn’t see what this sudden meeting could be about.

Could it be linked to those rumors going on about him? The academy teacher concluded it was probably the case, since he couldn’t see any other reason why the Godaime wanted to speak with him in private like this. Somehow, that thought didn’t reassure him at all. What did she hear about him exactly? Iruka suddenly wished he knew what those gossips people kept on exchanging about him were about. At least he’d know what to expect... Somehow, he had the impression that he was a prisoner waiting for his trial without even knowing what he was charged for. He knew it was stupid of him; maybe the Hokage only wanted to talk about his students... But somehow he highly doubted it.

The brown-haired man silently followed Shizune to the Hokage’s headquarters, his guts fluttering anxiously as he drew nearer to the Hokage tower. He nervously mused about how the distance between his workplace and the Godaime’s office seemed to shorten all of a sudden. As if even time didn’t want to let him calm down before that fateful moment. He knew it was a trick of his mind, but somehow he couldn’t get that stupid and useless thought out of his head. Even as the brown-haired woman opened the Hokage’s office doors and motioned him to enter her master’s hideout, he couldn’t get rid of the idea that time was pulling a bad pranks on him.

Bracing himself, Iruka willed some of his anxiety away and entered Tsunade’s office. He was expecting to see her waiting for him quietly behind her wide desk, a slight frown on her young-looking and rather gorgeous features, but the desk standing in front of him was surprisingly Tsunade-free. The chuunin looked cautiously around, but there was no sing of life in sight - except maybe the pot plant in the corner of the room, although one could wonder about its living state for it had an interesting brown-ish colour. Where could be the Hokage? Didn’t she want to talk to him? Turning around to ask the Hokage’s assistant what to do, the chuunin noticed that Shizune had left already and stared at the empty hallway with mild worry. Silently closed the doors behind him, Iruka stood by them and fidgeted, wondering what to do. Should sit down and wait for the Godaime? Or should he inform Shizune her master was missing? But he had no idea where the woman had gone to and looking for her in the high security Hokage tower was out of question. Clearly, he was going to have to wait.

Just as Iruka was about to take a seat, the Godaime suddenly came out of a small half-hidden door on his left and greeted him warmly.

“Ah, Iruka-kun, there you are,” she said with an unusual hearty smile. Her friendly attitude unsettled the brown-haired man, who had been expecting to get scolded by the blond woman. He stared at her a bit anxiously, unsure of what was the best attitude to adopt. Then his gaze when to the ground in front of her feet as he remembered it wasn’t polite to stare.

“Hokage-sama,” Iruka bowed politely, his gaze never leaving the ground. He heard the Hokage snicker.

“What’s wrong Iruka? You’re acting like a dog who’s been caught pissing on the carpet.” The illustration was sure crude, but quite accurate, Iruka thought with mild amusement.

“Shizune-sama said you wanted to have a word with me, so I thought...” the chuunin trailed on.

“...that I would scold you?” Tsunade finished with an amused smile. Iruka rubbed the bridge of his nose with his finger and laughed a bit nervously.

“I guess so.”

“Why would I? You’ve done nothing wrong - or at least, as far as I know. I just wanted to have a little friendly chat with you, since it’s been such a long time I haven’t talked to you.”

At those words, a warning bell rang into Iruka’s head. The Hokage, wanting to have a _friendly chat_? And with _him_ , of all people? He didn’t know what she wanted out of him, but it couldn’t be anything good. His apprehension must have showed on his face because Tsunade raised an amused eyebrow at him.

“You can come over you know, I don’t bite,” she told him as she entered the half-hidden room and hesitantly, Iruka followed her. Behind the hidden door, the chuunin found a small and cosy green room in which stood a low traditional Japanese table, a small fuming teapot and a pair of cups on its center. Tsunade sat at the table on an huge olive cushion, inviting warmly Iruka to join her. Slowly, the brown-haired man took place at the table and watched the Hokage as she served him tea, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the situation. The Godaime, serving him tea? Wanting to chat with him? That was utterly wrong... His brain worked madly to try to figure out what she could possibly want with him. Why was she suddenly caring so much about him? It wasn’t like they were intimate or something... Sure, they talked to each other once in a while, but not enough to justify something like that. And Iruka couldn’t see anything about himself that could arouse her curiosity so much that she would want to - wait.

The rumor.

Of course, it had to be the rumor. What else could it be? It had to be the rumor. Suddenly, the situation seemed to be ridiculously out of the brown-haired man’s control. Damn... How Iruka wished he knew what it was all about. Without any doubts, he would soon learn it anyway, he thought as he eyed the smiling Hokage with mild apprehension. Somehow, something was telling him what he would hear that night couldn’t be something he’d want to learn from the highest authority of the ninja village.

“So! How have you been doing lately, Iruka-kun?” the said woman broke his chain of thoughts as she served herself tea.

“I’m fine, thank you,” Iruka answered politely. Taking a sip of his tea, he hid a grimace as he swallowed the unusually bitter liquid. If Tsunade ever left her position as an Hokage, he hoped she wouldn’t retrain as a Tea House host. How did she manage to make such an horrible tea anyway? “The students are doing well and I love my job-”

“No, no,” she cut him at once. “I want to know how _you_ are doing.” Iruka’s eyebrow shot up with surprise.

“Well... I’m fine, I guess,” he answered slowly, wondering where she was headed with that discussion. The Hokage was staring at him expectantly, her big hazel eyes scrutinizing him intensely, almost trying to see through him and Iruka had the distinct impression that she had wanted to hear something else. It made him uneasy.

“... Shouldn’t I?” the chuunin added a bit anxiously as the woman kept on staring at him.

“Oh! no, I’m glad to hear you’re doing well, Iruka-kun,” she said at once, as if it was the most obvious fact on Earth, but Iruka had his doubts about it; he could have sworn her face had shown the opposite moments ago. Which was quite alarming, when you thought about it.

“But...” the woman finally added, confirming Iruka’s suspicions, “You know, sometimes... You can feel okay and have something on your mind at the same time. Those things happen.”

At those words, Hatake Kakashi’s masked face broke out in his mind and the chuunin lowered his gaze, trying his best to chase it away. She couldn’t be talking about it. There was no way she could. How would she know anyway? No, this was linked to the rumor, he reminded himself once again.

“I understand, but I assure you that I’m fine,” Iruka tried to sound convincing, smiling for good mesure.

Tsunade obviously didn’t look satisfied with that answer. “Iruka... I want you to know that if you were to feel, hum, insecure or down for any reason, you could rely on me...”

“Thank you for caring about me,” Iruka bowed his head innocently, knowing far too well she expected him to confess something but not willing to play the game. Hell, he didn’t even know what she expected him to say and to say the truth, the thought of sharing - or rather confessing - what was on his mind to the supposedly uninterested and caring Hokage to get mental support wasn’t much of his taste. Relying on the Godaime? To clear his mind? Yeah right. More like satisfying her curiosity.

When Iruka wouldn’t had anything, the Hokage’s eyes narrowed dangerously and she stared at him with mild annoyement. Somehow, that reassured Iruka; he preferred an annoyed Godaime to a friendly Godaime - at least, he knew what to expect from an annoyed Tsunade.

“Okay, listen Iruka,” the blond woman started on a business-like tone that fitted more with her style, “I’m not stupid, you’re not stupid, so let’s stop pretending,” she paused to drink her cup of tea and, to Iruka’s amusement, she winced at the horrible taste. After she got over her horrible gustatory experience, she eyed suspiciously the teapot and emptied none too subtly the rest of her drink in the nearest pot plant. No wonder the plant in her office was in such a suspicious health!

“Of course, I would understand you wouldn’t want to talk about it...” she said tentatively, but Iruka remained silent. He didn’t know at all where this discussion was leading them but obviously, the Hokage seemed to think he knew what this meeting was about. The academy teacher decided not to correct the woman for now; he preferred playing the game and see where that would lead them. When the Godaime realized he wouldn’t speak up, she continued on a softer tone.

“I’ll be honest... I’m worried for you,” she confessed seriously and the chuunin frowned, feeling suddenly confused.

“Why is that so?”

“Come on Iruka, don’t play dumb with me,” the Hokage brushed off his comment with an annoyed gesture of her hand. “You’re far too bright to have not noticed the word is spreading through the whole village. Everyone is talking about it.”

Iruka mentally cursed his bad luck. Of course, he knew there was a rumor about him! He wasn’t stupid! But he had no idea what it was about, and now Tsunade was assuming he knew about it. Maybe it was a better idea to admit his ignorance and clear the misunderstanding already, afterall... But before he had time to answer anything, the Godaime spoke up again on a soft tone.

“I know it must be hard for you to have your love life exposed so openly... I fully understand how difficult the situation you’re in is.”

Heh? What? A love life? Him? _What_ love life?

“Especially since it concerns someone as famous. I would understand if you wouldn’t want to talk about it, but...”

Wait, what situation? Someone famous? What was she talking about? Iruka stared at the older woman dumbly, oblivious to the true meaning of their discussion.

“...I’m concerned. You’re a nice guy Iruka, people appreciate you a lot and I really wouldn’t want you to get hurt in the process. Not that Kakashi would do something like that on purpose, of course...”

Hatake Kakashi.

Then, it hit Iruka. So _that_ was what it was all about! Someone had discovered Kakashi-sensei was in love with him and the news had spred through the village! It made so much sense Iruka couldn’t believe he hadn’t figured it out before. The news was bound to spread anytime soon: even those girls in the bathhouse had said so. The chuunin sighed, relaxing imperceptibly.

“Well, it’s true that I would have preferred it to remain secret, but...” Iruka started off quietly, unsure exactly how to describe his current situation. “I think I’m better off than Hatake-sama... He’s the one who probably wouldn’t want something like that to be known...”

“Don’t say that!” Tsunade yelled angrily, her powerful fist slamming on the table in a loud bang, startling the chuunin. Iruka stared at her, dumbfounded. “Don’t you dare say something like that again! You shouldn’t think so lowly of yourself like that! It’s not because Kakashi’s a bit famous or stronger than you that you don’t have a chance!”

... Wait... wha...?

“Don’t give up before trying! You’re still young, go for it! You’ll never find out if he returns your feelings if you keep on thinking like that!”

“...return my... feelings...?” Iruka wispered in a white voice, his stunned brain trying to process the information he’s been given.

“He might, you know,” the Godaime calmed down a bit, bending over to get closer to the chuunin, her eyes filled with true concern. “It’s common knowledge that he swings both ways, so you _do_ have a chance with him. If you want my advice, you should go for it. That Hatake kid would be stupid to turn you down,” she added the last sentence to herself silently.

“I’m... in love with Kakashi...?” Iruka stared in front of him blankly, information finaly proceeding. Tsunade gave him a sorry look, taking his shock for love-induced distress.

“Iruka, I know this must be hard for you, but if that’s the way you truly feel, then you should _a least_ try to do something about it...”

The brown-haired chuunin stared at the low table, his face abnormally devoid of emotions. In front of him, Tsunade was silently watching him with concern, but Iruka couldn’t care less - he felt like he was milles away. Everything seemed so... distant. He felt like this wasn’t happening to him, but to his reflected image, somewhere in a far away other dimension. To someone else, somewhere else.

Like an automaton, the chuunin blankly excused himself and left the Hokage’s office. He simply walked, letting his feet lead him around - he didn’t care where to, he just walked.

Later on, Iruka wondered how he found himself staring at his front door. The brown-haired man blinked, realizing suddenly that the door wouldn’t open by itself. Slowly, he took his keys out of his pockets and unlocked the door, wondering inwardly how long he had been standing there in the cold night - because, somewhere between the Hokage’s tower and his apartment, night had crept out of nowhere.

Funny how time seemed twisted in those kind of situations.

Iruka unlocked his front door and entered his apartment, not bothering to turn on the lights as he closed the door behind him and slowly made his way to his dark bedroom. He threw himself on the cold bed, landing face down on his soft mat. The chuunin rested there for a while, his previous numbness turning into a sea of tangled up words and feelings as his mind finally digested its newest upsetting discovery.

Everyone believed he was in love with Hatake Kakashi.

How _ironical_.

Iruka snorted into his pillow. His snort slowly turned into a chuckle and, before he realized it, the brown-haired man was laughing out loud hysterically into his pillow, clenching it as if his life depended on it. For long minutes, he laughed in his dark bedroom, not even able to stop himself. When he finally calmed down, Iruka let out a strangled sigh and sat up, staring sadly at his maltreated pillow.

So this is what it was all about...? That’s why people talked so much about him? Because they thought he was in love with the famous Copy Nin?

It explained many things. It explained why he received those sorry looks. Those mocking laughs. Those strange, disgusted stares...

Somehow, that thought depressed him even more and he hugged his pillow for comfort, staring at the wall sadly.

Umino Iruka wasn’t stupid: he knew pretty well the whole village wouldn’t make such a deal out of his homosexuality. Of course, some would talk about it with unhealthy interest - some always did. But it wouldn’t cause such a huge commotion. The reason why people reacted like that when they saw him probably wasn’t because they overheard he was gay, but because they overheard he had a crush on the _famous_ Hatake Kakashi. And somehow it hurt Iruka to think that people thought it was so scandalous or so ridiculous for him to love such a respected and famous man. Did they think a lowly chuunin, average-looking and boring man like him wasn’t worth someone like Hatake Kakashi? He knew he shouldn’t have cared and at some point he wondered why his mind focused so much on it, but he couldn’t help it and he had no idea why. And it hurt. To know that they thought he wasn’t worth him... It hurt. He knew he souldn’t have cared, but for some reason he did.

Then it hit him. What would his students’ parents think of him if they learned it? And his students? And... what would _Naruto_ think of him?

Iruka cursed under his breath, clutching the pillow with more strength as his uncertainties and questions suddenly made him feel nauseous. He felt lost and lonely, so lonely... He wished there would be someone by his side to tell him this wasn’t happening, that it was all a very bad dream he had because he’d eaten too much before going to bed... Iruka snorted bitterly at the thought.

As if he had that luck.

* * *

-Alternative ending-

This was the first ending I wrote, but in the end I didn’t like it enough to make it the official ending. And I didn’t want to waste it either, since I thought it was some kind of amusing. So it’s a fictive alternative ending - see it as a small bonus ;)

* * *

“I’m... in love with Kakashi...?” Iruka stared in front of him blankly, information finaly proceeding. Tsunade gave him a sorry look, taking his shock for love-induced distress.

“Iruka, I know this must be hard for you, but if that’s the way you truly feel, then you should a least try to do something about it...”

The brown-haired chuunin stared at the low table, his face abnormally devoid of emotions. Tsunade stayed silent, watching him closely with concern. Poor Iruka, he looked like a ton just had it hit. He must have been still in denial...

“Hokage-sama... please excuse me,” the young man muttered in an equally controlled voice before getting up and heading for the door slowly. The Hokage watched him leave with worried eyes, not saying a word. She could have stopped him, but somehow the man was looking so pathetic she didn’t have the heart to. When she heard her office door close behind him, she sighed heavily.

Moments later, there was a soft knocking. Through the tea room’s opened door, Tsunade could see her office door slide open, Shizune’s head appearing through it. The blonde woman motioned her to enter silently, still thinking over the events of her small and almost one-sided discussion with the academy teacher. The brunette walked in, hesitant, closely followed by Gemna and a pouting Jiraiya.

“So?” the brown-haired woman asked hesitantly, obviously fearing for the worst at the desperate sight the Godaime was giving them. The older woman sighed.

“... My, the poor guy has it hard...” she finally answered wearily, feeling oddly sad for the younger man.

“Is that so?” Shizune asked back with interest, obviously as worried by that affair as her master.

“And he sounds like he’s still in denial about it too...”

“Oh my...” the assistant breathed out, mildly horrified. “That’s _awful_! With the whole village knowing...”

“I know,” the Hokage sighed sadly again.

“Is there anything we could do?” Genma tried asked in an unconcerned tone, hints of worry showing through his casual words. The bandana-wearing ninja was not particularly close to Iruka - in fact, he was only there because it was caught with the quite unpopular duty of protecting the Hokage for the week. But he knew Umino Iruka was quite a nice, if not a bit lonely guy and he felt a bit concerned about what was happening to him. Especially with all those jerks making a show of every aspects of his private life.

“Well, we might...”

“So why did you ask me to come around?” Jiraiya cut Tsunade harshly, speaking up from his remote corner of the room for the first time. “I’ve got nothing to do with this!”

“You!” The blonde woman’s head sprang around, her eyes flashing with renewed energy. “You’re close to Kakashi, aren’t you?”

“The Hatake brat?” Jiraiya’s eyebrow shot up with mild surprise. “Well, I guess you could say so.”

“Do you think Iruka’s got a chance?” Tsunade blurted out, griping the corner of the small table with anticipation.

“Heh? How the hell should I know?”

“You’re close to Kakashi! You should know his tastes, dammit!” Tsunade shouted angrily, getting impatient.

“Heh, I never said that I was his best buddy! You should ask Gai - no wait, that’d be wrong,” Jiraiya thought out loud, frowning in mild disgust. “I know! Ask his brat team - with all the time they spend around him, they must have a good idea what are his tastes.”

“We can’t do that,” was the blonde ninja’s fast answer.

“Why?”

“Because they’re way too close to Iruka. We wouldn’t what them finding we’re planning to match them together,” Tsunade sighed, obviously not pleased with the turning up of the events. Then, her face lit up. “But there _is_ something we could do for Iruka...” She looked expectantly at Jiraiya. The white-haired man knew that look far too well... On the whole, it usually meant trouble for him.

“No... Oh no! _No!_ There’s no freaking way I’m gonna try to convince that brat to go out with your _Iruka_ ,” the said man announced bluntly, crossing his arms in a determined way.

“Yes you will,” the Hokage let out dangerously between her clenched teeth.

“I won’t! Find yourself another solution!”

“Kakashi reads your books, right?” Genma suddenly spoke up casually, almost out of nowhere.

“Of course!” Jiraiya burst out with pride, “He’s one of my biggest fan!”

“You could include Iruka in one of your novels.”

“What!” The white-haired man spat out, shocked.

“You could create a character that would remind Kakashi of Iruka and, you know, have him having a romantic affair with another man,” Genma repeated very slowly, as if he was talking to a particularly stupid children. The three other people stared at him with strange looks on their faces, obviously deeply shocked and/or disturbed by that idea.

“Hurgh, that’s sick! I only write heterosexual romance!” Jiraiya finally burst out when he came to his senses, downright insulted.

“Well, you could make up a treesome with two men,” The bandana-wearing man suggested, shrugging. They all stared blankly at him again in a long awkward silence.

“...Or maybe not,” Genma muttered after a while, looking away.

“I... think it would be better to stick to our first plan,” Tsunade decided politely. Shizune nodded vigorously behind her, obviously relieved her master hadn’t seriously considered the other man’s disturbing idea.

“If you’re talking about that stupid idea where I have to convince Kakashi to date your Iruka-guy, then forget about your first plan because I’m not doing it,” Jiraiya spat out, almost sulking.

“It isn’t a request: it’s an order.”

“Oh yeah? I’d like to see you force me to,” the man replied bluntly.

“You see Jiraiya, I happen to have quite a few complains of feminine konoha residents about some white-haired old pervert peeping at the women’s bathhouse...” the blonde woman said off-handily, scrutinizing her fingernails with sudden interest. “If the said pervert was to be caught, I wonder what kind of punishment I should impose upon him...”

“Humph! If you think you’re going to blackmail me into-”

“More importantly, I wonder what would happen to that pervert’s ass if those feminine konoha residents were to find his identity... In any case, I wouldn’t want to be there at that precise moment...” she added on the same unconcerned tone, still gazing at her impeccable fingernails. Jiraiya’s shoulder fell as realization came to him.

“... Fine, I’ll do it,” Jiraiya finally grunted between his teeth, cursing inwardly his former teammate and her weird ideas.

“I knew you would come to your senses,” she replied him sweetly, smiling mischievously. The old man snorted for good mesure and left the room hastily, muttering darkly on his way out the office. He slammed the wooden door shut loudly, leaving Genma, Shizune and her sensei alone in the suddenly quiet room. They all remained silent for a few minutes, before Shizune spoke up her worries.

“Hokage-sama, are you sure this is... appropriate?”

“No, but it’s better than nothing,” she sighed.


	4. Chapter 4

Iruka could feel the warmth of the late morning sun on his tanned skin and bedsheets, but he couldn’t care less. It was Saturday. There were no classes, no mission room duties awaiting him. So why bothering to get up anyway, huh? He could spend the whole day in his bed if he wanted to. And that option seemed very appealing to him right then... Yes, very appealing.

Truth being told, Iruka used to get up early on Saturday mornings to clean his small apartment, do the laundry and the groceries. But on that beautiful Saturday morning, all the chuunin wanted to do was to keep on cuddling his warm sun-bathed blankets and forget about everything else. In fact, he didn’t even want his foggy brain to remind him what exactly he wanted to forget so much to start with. No, he didn’t want to remember.

... Alas, his brain seemed to catch up with him in the end and he groaned at the vague remembrance of the previous day’s events. Frowning, Iruka hugged his blankets tighter and tried to force himself to go back to sleep already and forget about it all for at least another one or two hour. Or for the rest of the weekend, preferably. But right then, his stomach protested loudly against it. The chuunin inwardly growled, annoyed at the evil ploys his stomach and his brain had put up to force him out of bed. He hugged his blanket even closer and resolutely shot his eyes even tighter, refusing to let his stupid stomach win over him. But after countless minutes spent lying face-down on his bed, he had to face the truth; he would not be able to go back to sleep.

Sighing to himself, Iruka reluctantly sat up and scratched his unshaved face distractedly, inwardly cursing his grunting stomach for being hungry so early. What hour was it anyway? Iruka lazily grabbed the clock laying on his bed table and stared at it. It showed 1:17 p.m. Okay, maybe not that early anymore, he admitted with a resigned sigh.

Normally, he would have been downright upset to get up at such a late hour - he rarely got up after nine in the morning. But for some reasons, that day Umino Iruka didn’t seem to mind. Passing his hand in his untied hair, the academy teacher mildly wondered what to do now. Usually, he cleaned his apartment, did the laundry and the grocery on Saturdays. But this couldn’t quite be said to be an usual Saturday either.

First things first: he was hungry, or at least his stomach was telling him so, so he would eat. Yes, that was his plan. Eating first, and he’d think of something else afterward. With that plan in mind, the brown-haired man got up and sloppily walked to his small sun-bathed kitchen. He first made his way to the fridge, even though he already knew it was nearly empty since he hadn’t done the groceries yet. Who knew, maybe he still had something eatable somewhere in there... But further investigations revealed his hopes had been vain. He then rapidly looked into his small cupboard but was disappointed once again, as it was nearly as empty as the fridge, except for some canned vegetables and tomato juice. Great.

Out of better options, the chuunin fished a milk bottle out of his fridge, opened it, sniffed it and, judging his chances of survival were acceptable, drank it directly from the neck, not even caring to get himself a glass.

Iruka truly felt miserable. He felt like he’d been walked over by an elephant - he had barely slept, his worries and dark thoughts keeping him awake most of the night. If at least in his insomnia he had found a way to overcome all these troubling issues... But it seemed that lady luck wasn’t on his side that particular week. The bathhouse forced revelation and now this...

His stomach grunted a little louder. The chuunin sighed and lazily contemplated commanding take-out – cooking was out of question because 1) he didn’t feel like it, and 2) because to cook, people usually needed food, something he seemed to lack of at that precise moment. Plus there was no way he’d leave his apartment in _that_ state, no matter how hungry he was - he liked to think he still had some pride left. And the prospect of facing a whole village convinced he was in love with one of the most famous and mysterious male jounin in town was not exactly appealing either. Which meant commanding take-out.

As he was mildly wondering if he would command pizza or fried chicken for breakfast, someone knocked on his front door, startling him. Iruka groaned at his bad luck. Oh, that was just _perfect_. He just _needed_ to be seen by anyone in such a pitiful state. Just. Great.

For half a second, Iruka seriously contemplated faking to be absent and just let rot outside whoever had come to visit him, but then his visitor did not leave him the choice as he shamelessly opened his unlocked door and entered the small apartment. Iruka inwardly swore, feeling suddenly very annoyed at whoever lacked enough manners to wait for him to open the door before entering. Why wasn’t the stupid door _locked_ anyway!? What was the point of having a lock on your door if you didn’t even use it when it was important, like, for example, when you felt like shit and didn’t want to see anyone on a certain Saturday morning?

“Iruka-sensei?” his visitor called and the chuunin recognized at once his ex-pupil’s voice. He mentally groaned; of course, it had to be Naruto. Who else would enter as if he owned the place like that anyway?

“Ah, Naruto!” he said with fake enthusiasm as he heard the young man walk toward him. Before he even knew it, the young man was entering the kitchen, a broad smile plastered on his somewhat still boyish face.

“Hey, Iruka -- SENSEI!” the teen bellowed as he caught sight of his ex-teacher, his eyes as wide as saucers. “What the hell happened to you? You look like shit!”

Iruka smiled weakly; somehow, he couldn’t help but find Naruto’s predictable outburst a bit cute. Trust Naruto to be so straightforward and to exaggerate everything. But then again, he knew the teen was probably right. He was unshaved, sweaty, his hair was a real mess and he probably had shadows under his eyes that could put to shame Hayate-san’s – he guessed he looked overly miserable. And one could not help but notice he was still in his wrinkled pajamas past 1 p.m., which was just _wrong_. Obviously, Naruto had noticed it as well.

“Well I’m glad to hear my appearance fits with my mood,” the chuunin joked mildly, knowing far too well pretending to be okay would not convince his stubborn ex-student - Naruto was far too perspicacious to be tricked this easily. But maybe, just maybe, the teen would understand he didn’t want to talk about it and leave that matter alone... out of respect for him. Although Iruka highly doubted such a thing to happen; when the ramen-lover was upset, his new-found discretion was usually soon forgotten. And by the worried and slightly panicked look the teenager was giving him, Iruka knew he just earned himself a full interrogation. He inwardly sighed at the thought; he should have known better than to hope otherwise...

“What’s wrong, Iruka-sensei?” Naruto asked him boldly, barely hiding his concern.

“I had a harsh week and I’m a bit exhausted,” the brown-haired man explained casually, hoping the blonde would understand that he didn’t want to talk about it. And after all, he was entirely saying the truth - harsh being an euphemism, of course, but Naruto didn’t need to know that.

“Just a harsh week?” Naruto repeated sceptically, giving him a severe look that obviously said he was not buying it. Iruka simply nodded, drinking another mouthful of milk.

“Bullshit. You’re teaching _pre-genin brats_ , harsh weeks are your usual lot!”

“Don’t speak of them like that. Mind I remind you that you used to be one of those ‘ _brats_ ’ only a few years ago?” Iruka scolded the young man on a mildly indignant voice, carefully avoiding to answer the blonde’s question. But Naruto wasn’t fooled and obviously couldn’t care less about the appellation Iruka’s students should be given. The young man stared silently at his ex-teacher, an unreadable look on his boyish face. Iruka knew that look; it was the look the blonde usually gave people when he was seriously thinking something over. That couldn’t be good, Iruka decided warily.

“... Would it be linked with those rumors?” Naruto finally asked on an unusual quiet tone, watching the older man carefully. At those words, Iruka felt like something had hit him and he his whole body tensed up defensively. He at once realized his reaction had given him away as his ex-student’s expression shifted ever so slightly. The brown-haired man looked away, shifting his gaze to the broken tile beside his bare feet.

Somehow, Iruka felt something sink in him at the thought that the blonde knew. He had foolishly hoped Naruto wouldn’t hear about it. Or at least, not so soon. But who had he been kitting? Nobody could stop Konoha’s gossip machine; Naruto was bound to hear about it sooner or later. They were bound that have that humiliating discussion sooner or later. He might as well get over with it, he thought with resignation.

“... Between other things, yes,” the teacher admitted half-heartedly, still avoiding the teen’s eyes.

“Are they true?”

“God no,” Iruka answered flatly, rubbing his eyes tiredly. The kitchen fell silent and when Iruka opened his eyes again, he found the teenager’s piercing blue eyes set on him, his young features showing skepticism. Somehow, Naruto didn’t look satisfied with his answer.

“Is it the only thing putting you down? Some stupid _rumor_?” the teen said incredulously and Iruka stared with surprise at him. “The Iruka-sensei I know is stronger than that! You’re not honest with me – I know there’s something else on your mind.”

The chuunin looked away once again and reminded silent. As the silence stretched between them, Iruka inwardly cursed the young man’s perceptiveness. _Of course_ there was something else on his mind! There were so many things on his mind that he could feel his head throb already...! But he didn’t want to discuss those things, and especially not with one of his ex-students. Couldn’t Naruto see that? Didn’t he understand? Why couldn’t he respect his privacy for once? The teen seemed to respect everyone’s privacy, except his! It was plain unfair.

“Iruka-sensei.” Naruto said his name flatly, on that kind of voice adults used when they wanted their children to know they were better spilling out the beans right then because they had more patience than them. Which was probably true in Naruto’s case; the teen was so stubborn...

God, he couldn’t believe he was giving up already.

“Well...” the chuunin started off reluctantly, “I know it’s stupid, but I can’t help being worried about what people’ll think... My students, their parents and... Kakashi-sensei.” He said the last name softly, the silver-haired man’s name feeling suddenly strange out of his mouth.

“Why would it matter?” Naruto said bluntly and Iruka gave him a tired look. “I mean seriously, you shouldn’t worry yourself so much over what a bunch of  year old will think of you. And their parents are grown-ups, they have enough common sense to know that such a thing won’t change a thing into your teaching methods, and that’s all that matter, right? Anyway, this will all be forgotten in two or three weeks, so it’s not the end of the world.”

“I’d like to be as optimist as you...” the brown-haired man muttered gloomily under his breath.

“As for Kakashi-sensei, you don’t have to worry. He won’t hear about it,” the blonde added with assurance. Iruka gave him an incredulous look.

“How can you be so sure about it?”

“Weeellllll, hm, you could say Kakashi-sensei is like... a social hermit. Doesn’t like social interactions - he doesn’t hang with people unless he really _really_ has to. And if he doesn’t talk to people, then he doesn’t hear gossips. Trust me, he won’t hear about it.”

There was a long, easy silence between the two males. Iruka stared at the floor quietly, thoughts rushing in his head. He was skeptical about Naruto’s thought process, but he didn’t voice out his doubts. Naruto probably just wanted to reassure him, and he appreciated the gesture. But somehow, some part of him couldn’t help but being a little hopeful. What if it was true? Could it be even possible for the Copy nin not to hear about it...? Even if Kakashi was a total hermit, sooner or later he’d hear about it or at least _notice_ it, with the whole village treating it like a scandalous public affair. It was only a question of time... But Iruka felt a bit reassured nonetheless by Naruto’s words. Maybe, just _maybe_ , the jounin would not learn the news... He didn’t want the Copy nin, of all people, to hear about it. What if Kakashi-sensei, hearing that he was in love with him, asked him out? Or, even worse, confessed him his love? What would he tell him? Hell, he didn’t even know how he felt toward the man since he learned the Sharigan user loved him!

Of course, he could always confront him first and warn him about the false rumor, but somehow the chuunin didn’t want to hurt Kakashi’s feelings by telling him he didn’t love him - especially since he didn’t even know if he had feelings or not for the older man to start with! The more he thought about it, the more troublesome his situations appeared to be. Oh, how he dreaded the day he would have to confront the jounin again...! It must have showed on his face, because Naruto gave him a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry too much over it, Iruka-sensei. I bet in no longer than one week, they’ll have forgotten about it already and we’ll be laughing of it together.”

The chuunin gave his ex-pupil a small tired smile. “...Thank you, Naruto.”

“No problem. You know,” Naruto suddenly added on a lighter tone, “If you ever need to talk it over a sake bottle with someone, I’m there! Bring up the sake!”

“Naruto!” Iruka protested loudly, back to his usual self, “You’re not of drinking age!”

The young man laughed sheepishly. He was about to say something when they both heard Iruka’s stomach rumble loudly, its growl resounding in the silent kitchen. There was a short uneasy silence, then Naruto burst out laughing, obviously highly amused.

“I guess **I’ll** be the one treating you to ramen today, Iruka-sensei!”

\--

On Monday afternoon, when Iruka braced himself and finally entered the mission room to do his shift at the mission desk, he felt like entering in a trap. The whole place radiated an aura of doom the chuunin was not quite fond of.

Okay, it downright scared him.

Somehow, the mission room was less crowded than it used to be the previous week, a few days after the rumor started spreading itself through the village, but it was still crowded enough to be not natural either. It seemed people still hadn’t lost of their interest for him, Iruka thought with disappointment. Trying not to think too much about it, he headed for his assigned desk as if he was not noticing more than half of the room was openly staring at him, some not even bothering to be subtle about it. As he walked through the crowded room, Iruka caught sight of the two biggest gossip whores of the whole village, Anko and Awaki, and he suddenly felt more anxious than embarrassed. The presence of those two gossip addicts ganged up together was already a bad omen for anyone who crossed their path on normal days, having them watching him avidly like that in such a situation was downright unnerving. In the end, it was just a rumor, he told himself for at least the hundredth time since the beginning of the weekend three days ago. They would grow tired of him. Yes, they would grow tired of him pretty soon...

And it was not as if it could get worse than it already was.

The academy teacher did as if he hadn’t noticed all those people stealing glances more or less subtly at him and calmly installed himself at the mission desk among the other chuunins in duty, many of them _also_ stealing glances at him. During the whole evening, he did his best to remain calm, collected and to ignore all those stares and amused murmurs. After all, he couldn’t care less about what they could think about him. Or so he tried to convince himself. But somehow, he couln’t help but feel humiliated and a bit hurt by all that hungry and foul-mouthed attention he was given lately, especially now that he knew what it was about. His coworkers at the academy, some of his students’ parents, random strangers... Everybody seemed to have such an unhealthy interest for him...! It was already putting him on the edge and it was _only_  Monday evening.

At some point, he started hearing two voices getting louder – a little too loud for trained ninjas. The two women were still whispering, but he could make out most of their discussion.

“... a shame really, that such a man could even imagine he had a chance with _him_...”

“Hatake Kakashi!”

“Yeah. A nobody like him… He’s not even mildly attractive.”

“Do you think he has confessed yet?”

“I heard he haven’t.”

“So Kakashi-san doesn’t know...?”

“Are you out of your mind? He’s an elite jounin; there’s not a chance in hell he doesn’t know, everyone’s talking about it in town.”

“Poor him... It must be pretty humiliating. Everybody knows.”

“I wonder what he’s waiting for to confront the chuunin and turn him down before he gets his hopes up...”

Iruka did his best not to show he had heard them as he approved some C-ranked missions. He was not stupid; they were trying to get a reaction out of him, some first-hand juicy information they could share with other gossip addicts. And the chuunin was determined not to give in and let them have the little show they were looking for. So he remained emotionless, to everyone’s all too obvious disappointment. And time passed by. Atrociously slowly.

Around 6 o’clock, Iruka realized there was something wrong going on when the mission room suddenly turned suspiciously silent. Somehow, his 6th sense told him that it was not a good sing for him... Out of reflex, before his brain could even warn him he should know better, he looked up and almost had an heart-attack.

Eight feet in front of him stood Hatake Kakashi, the one and only.

For a moment, Iruka’s brain froze, too shocked to allow intelligent thoughts to process, as his heart raced madly in his chest. When the jounin started making his way toward him, he snapped out of it and tried to regain some composure. He had to calm down, to act normally... After all, he had no reason to panic. **HE** was the one in control there. **HE** knew about the rumor _and_ about Kakashi’s feelings. That made of him the one in control in the place - since Kakashi-sensei didn’t know Iruka had found out he loved him _and_  hadn’t heard about the rumor.

... Or had he?

 _No! Don’t go that way!_ Iruka desperately thought, starting to feel nauseous at the mere possibility that the Copy nin might have heard the rumor and come to confess his feelings for him. But he was stupid, really; there was no way Kakashi-sensei, who usually showed sings of shyness around him, would confess in such a crowded place. That thought was a huge relief for the academy teacher: at least for now, he was _safe_. Well, as safe as one can be caught with an eccentric jounin having a crush for him in a room full of Konoha’s finest gossip machines.

All too soon, the Sharigan user was standing in front of him, adoring his trademark bored expression on the little exposed part of his face. Trying his best to look collected and natural, Iruka greeted him.

“Good afternoon, Kakashi-sensei.”

“Yo,” the silver-haired man simply answered, sounding nonchalant, but Iruka knew better. Then there was a long silence between them, the jounin staring at the ceiling with a mildly thoughtful expression. Iruka could _feel_ the tension rising in the mission room, the silent little crowd of gossipers watching hungrily for every single little movement or sound they would make, devouring them with their eyes. All this unhealthy attention made Iruka somewhat nervous - and it also pissed him off; weren’t they supposed to be ninjas? How the heck was that supposed to be _subtle_? Where has their stealth gone? Just how stupid were they anyway? There was no way in HELL Kakashi-sensei hadn’t noticed them by now...! Bunch of jerks!

“Say, Iruka-sensei...” the elite jounin finally spoke up, his eye still staring a bit blankly at the ceiling, “...you seem to have gotten quite popular lately.”

There was suddenly a rustle in the mission room: people started speaking together, nins in duty at the mission desk started fuming through mission reports busily while some other suddenly got very interested in the nearest plant. Iruka inwardly smirked at their staggering and shameful lack of professionalism.

“Indeed, I have,” the brown-haired man answered with irony, a hint of amusement in his voice. Somehow, the whole situation seemed so ridiculous that it made him feel a bit more comfortable.

“Your fanclub?” the jounin asked on the same bored voice.

“I wish,” the chuunin replied on a tone that said everything. “Do you have a report for me, Kakashi-sensei?”

The silver-haired man gave him a very neat looking mission report - Obviously, he wanted to make up for the last one. As Iruka was trying to concentrate to verify it, Kakashi gave the room a circular nonchalant glance.

“... Are they bothering you?” he finally asked on the same unconcerned voice. It obviously did not fool anyone, as Iruka felt the crowd tense up.

“Oh, no. I’m used to worse than that - I teach pre-genins, after all,” he answered casually. Note to self: treat Naruto to ramen tomorrow for the good reply line.

“I see. Really, I’m surprised to see so many people here - I’d never thought Konoha’s ninja were so bored they’d spend their evening in the mission room. I guess the Hokage would find it quite odd.”

The crowd suddenly froze at the Copy nin’s not so subtle threat. Of course, everybody fully knew the Hokage would be downright pissed to know her soldiers were slaking around - and in the mission room no less. That would totally enrage her. And nobody in their right mind wanted to deal with an enraged Hokage - especially when she was pissed at _you_. As for Iruka, he knew for sure that if the Hokage learned that anyone had jeopardized what she thought were Iruka’s ‘chances’ with Hatake Kakashi, she would personally make that person suffer, given how she seemed to want to match them together. But the chuunin decided not to voice that part out.

Giving one last look at the jounin’s report, Iruka looked up. “Everything seems to be in order. Thank you for your hard work.”

“Hn,” the silver-haired man said unintelligibly. “G’night, sensei.”

The elite jounin then turned around and nonchalantly left the mission room. Iruka sighed inwardly, relieved. Well... It went rather well. He had been stupid, really, to fear so much talking to the Copy nin again. Their short and light discussion allowed Iruka to reevaluate the situation he was in. The way he had stood up for him... Obviously, Kakashi-sensei was a nice and comprehensive man. And quite tactful, too. This... well, maybe it wasn’t such an ordeal that Kakashi-sensei loved him. It was not that he loved him back or anything! He just realized he had overreacted a bit. All things considered, it was not the end of the world. And if the jounin was to... confess his feelings for him, he could just tell him the truth. That he was a bit at a loss and that, until he sorted out all the mess in his head, he was not interested. It was not complicated; it was a wonder why he fretted so much over it.

... Still, he **_sincerely_** hoped he wouldn’t have to confront the man any time soon.

Now that the Copy nin was gone, the mission room seemed to be a lot quieter. It felt like the tension in the air had fallen: obviously, the crowd had seen what it had come for in the first place. But now that Kakashi-sensei was gone and that nothing interesting or possibly revealing happened, they were disappointed and it showed. Iruka fought back the urge to smirk at the thought, too happy of the way things had turned out. For now at least, they wouldn’t spread new rumors about him...

The academy teacher was also under the impression there would be much less ninjas hanging around in the mission room in the following days during his shift. Sure enough, soon after Kakashi-sensei had left the room, people started leaving subtly the mission room one by one. And for that, he could not help but feel grateful for Kakashi-sensei’s tactful intervention. That had been very thoughtful of him - he had to remember to thank him the next time they met... He owned him one.

Maybe one day, who knows, they would be able to laugh it over together.

...Nah.


	5. Chapter 5

It was a cloudy and cold Thursday afternoon. But Iruka’s mood couldn’t be ruined by the nasty weather, nor by the continual stares and murmurs that still followed him everywhere he went, even in his classroom as his _students_ had started giving him weird stares lately. No, not even that could ruin his good mood. No, he couldn’t care less about those. Because it was Thursday. And Thursday were good days: he didn’t have classes after 3 o’clock and had no mission room duties, so he always finished early on Thursdays. Plus, he was almost done correcting his students’ latest homework and was supposed to meet with Naruto at the Ichiraku ramen stand around 5 o’clock. The prospect of spending the evening with the colorful and dynamic teen was making him smile with anticipation - Naruto always knew how to cheer him up somehow and he was looking forward to spending the evening with his bouncy ex-pupil.

When he was done with his classes, Iruka watched his students leave mournfully for their study session with the other pre-genins and cleaned the classroom absent-mindedly. Then, he started finishing correcting the children’s homework. Hopefully, the correction wouldn’t take too much time and he would be finished before heading for Ichiraku’s. That way, he’d have the whole evening to himself, something quite rare for him. Before the whole rumor affair turned upside down his life, Iruka had bought himself a book he had been longing to read for a long time. If things went smoothly, he would be able to read it before going to bed. And then he would go to the bathhouse and take a long, hot bath... Indeed, he was about to have a nice, relaxing evening.

Iruka was grading when one of his coworkers knocked on the classroom’s door frame. “Iruka-sensei?”

“Yes?”

“Dokyugo-san would like to see you at his office - right now.”

Iruka’s eyebrows rose up with surprise; what could the Principal want with him? None of his students was in a precarious position and, as far as he was aware of, he hadn’t done anything lately that could explain why the Principal suddenly needed to have a discussion with him.

Dokyugo Yochuu was a 45 year-old man who was known for being a good diplomat - that was the reason why he was named the Principal of the Ninja Academy in the first place. His job was to ensure a good cooperation between teachers and the heads of the important family clans of the village, who often didn’t have the same views on matters such as teaching methods and what should be taught to children to start with. It was a tricky job, because Konoha couldn’t afford to set the heads of the clans against the village, but their heirs couldn’t be given special treatment either - they would be the first ones to be penalized by it, even though their parents thought otherwise. He also had to make sure what the professors taught was respecting the Hokage and the village council’s wishes and did not offense any clan. It was a difficult task and that was why Dokyugo-san was so respected by his peers.

Why did he want to see Iruka so suddenly? Usually, he only ordered teachers by his office when they did something wrong or when some parents complained about their teaching methods - which was more common than people imagined. It sure had been a while since the last time Iruka had been convoked to the Principal’s office - he mildly wondered what he could have done wrong, passing in review his last lessons in his head as he made his way to Dokyugo-san’s office. Maybe it was about last week’s classes; he had been quite distracted back then because of what he heard in the bathhouse about Kakashi-sensei. He probably wanted to give him a warning to make sure he’d remain focused in class. Anyhow, he’d soon find out, he told himself as he arrived to his superior’s office.

Taking one big breath, Iruka knocked on Dokyugo’s door and waited, feeling a little bit anxious although he knew he shouldn’t. Those meetings were rather common, he shouldn’t let them upset him anymore. Besides, what he had done probably wasn’t serious. He heard the Principal tell him to come in from behind the closed door and entered the sober but tastefully decorated room, quietly closing the door behind him. Dokyugo-san was behind his large wooden desk, a strangely serious expression on his features. Immediately, Iruka realized that something was off - the atmosphere in there was way too heavy for a simple lecture on his teaching methods...

“Iruka-sensei,” the man greeted him severely, “Please take a seat.”

The chuunin bowed and sat down on the leather chair in front of the Principal’s desk, already feeling defensive. There was a long tense silence between the two men, Dokyugo-san staring at the brown-haired man sitting in front of him silently. Under the man’s intense gaze, Iruka was starting to feel slightly anxious: could he have severely messed up? What the hell was this about? After a while, the older man’s eyes went to the opened file laying on the desk in front of him.

“Iruka, you are one of the best teacher we have here at the academy,” the man said as he read the documents in front of him. “Your service record is faultless, your students perform well and your teaching methods are flawless. You truly are a good element for this academy.”

Silence ensued. It was strange; Dokyugo-san had just openly complimented him, yet he didn’t feel like the older man was complimenting him... Iruka didn’t like it.

“Please excuse my rudeness,” Iruka spoke up politely but firmly, “but I would like to know why you summoned me here.” There was a short silence.

“Recently, I have received several complaints of parents who requested to remove their children from your classes. They seemed to fear that the fact that their children were taught by... someone like you could have a bad influence on them. Some respectable Konoha residents even demanded your resignation.”

Iruka couldn’t believe his ears. People wanted him fired because they thought he was... **_gay_**? He knew that the heads of some important clans, or the “respectable Konoha residents”, like the Principal liked to call them, were quite finicky when it came to the education of their precious heirs, but this was going too far! He couldn’t envisage being the victim of such _implausible_ discrimination! The chuunin didn’t know if he felt indignant, furious or simply disgusted by the whole situation. Definitely a bit of the three.

In front of the academy teacher’s silence, Dokyugo-san continued. “You must understand, Iruka-sensei, that this is a delicate situation. Those rumors about you caused already quite a disturbance through the village... We cannot afford to let this go on anymore. Fortunately, this problem can be easily solved if you cooperate.”

“And what do I have to do to solve this problem?” Iruka asked in his best calm and collected voice, hiding the irritation and hurt he felt at the Principal’s condescending tone.

“You have to stop seeing Hatake Kakashi and get married.”

...Say what? _Getting married?_ **_Married!_** Just because some haughty parents didn’t want their children to be taught by a gay man?! Iruka couldn’t believe it; it felt almost surreal. Dokyugo-san couldn’t possibly be serious about it... But by the solemn look on his face, he wasn’t kidding. He seriously wanted him to _marry_!

“Of course, I am not an inconsiderate man, I can show some flexibility; if you were to find yourself a nice girlfriend, things could be solved pretty easily.”

There was no doubts; Iruka was fuming now.

“And what if I don’t want to?” the brown-haired man asked lightly, trying to remain impassive in front of the older man.

“If you don’t _want_ to? You seem to have misunderstood me, Umino,” his superior warned him on a menacing tone. “It was not a request or a suggestion; it was an _order_. If you don’t comply to it...” the older man didn’t finish his sentence.

“If I don’t?” the chuunin pressed on calmly, anger already starting to boil in his veins.

“... I’m afraid your services won’t be needed anymore.”

“... So you’re going to fire me because of some stupid gossips?” Iruka finally said, incredulous.

“Let’s make it clear: it’s not about what you are or are not, it’s about what our students’ parents will think. Besides,” the man continued on a lighter tone, “ if you change your behaviour, there won’t be any need to go that far. You are a valuable employee; it would be a shame to loose you, and that’s why I took on me to allow you to keep your job here under these, I think, reasonable conditions. But don’t get full of yourself; you’re not irreplaceable either.”

That was the last straw. The academy teacher was overcome by indignant anger, disgusted at the man’s nerve. He got up and bent forward the man facing him, his hands resting on his superior’s desk. The man backed down a bit in his chair, obviously feeling intimidated by the cold anger the chuunin was radiating.

“With all due respect,” Iruka muttered between clenched teeth, his voice low and as cold as ice, “You have no right to interfere with my love life. I will never, ever, let _anyone_ decide for me what I do in my private life and if you want to ‘replace me’, then _go ahead_.”

Without further ado, the chuunin turned on his heels and left the office hastily before the Principal could even answer back, slamming the door shut behind him violently. Fuming, he strode through the academy, teachers and students alike turning their heads toward him on his way, but he couldn’t care less. How dared he! **_How dared they?_** Iruka had never felt this insulted before! This was so ridiculous! To think that the Principal asked him to _get married_ in order to keep his job at the academy! And he said it as if he was being _generous_ with him! The bastard!

The chuunin stopped by his classroom, put away his homework in his suitcase and headed out - there was no way he’d stay at the academy after what just happened! Right then, everything about the academy disgusted him, made him sick. At any rate, he probably wouldn’t have been able to continue grading homework in that mood.

Iruka walked out of the academy and then rushed through Konoha’s narrow and busy streets, not minding where he went as long as it was far away from his workplace and that arrogant jerk. Adrenaline pumping in his veins, he ignored the weird stares people kept on giving an walked on quickly. When he reached the 4th district, he slowed down and took a few good breaths to cool off a bit. He needed to calm down a bit... After all, these bastards didn’t even deserve his anger...! They were just narrow-minded people who couldn’t care less about him, he shouldn’t get so upset over what such people could tell him. It didn’t matter. No, he shouldn’t care. They were just jerks.

But then, it truly hit him. He would get fired. He would probably _lose_ his job at the academy. The chuunin felt strangely nauseous at the thought, he who had thought he would teach children for another 10 years - he even had secretly wished to be able to teach until he retired. But soon enough, he might find himself unemployed...! The prospect of not working at the academy anymore made his heart tighten painfully.

The chuunin frowned and shook his head resolutely. He loved his job. Really, he did. But there was no way he was going to let anyone decide what was good for him - especially if the only thing they were looking for was to please some spoiled narrow-minded brats. Whatever what would happen, Iruka was confident he had made the right choice by staying true to himself like he had. He had taken the best decision.

It wasn’t about Kakashi-sensei. It wasn’t about so-called homosexuality or was people could possibly think about it. It was about his pride.

Umino Iruka kept on walking, replaying in his head his discussion with the Principal, living over and over again anger, frustration, bitterness, humiliation and sadness. Somehow he couldn’t help but bitterly imagine what the discussions between those narrow-minded parents and the Principal had been like, those haughty people’s arrogance and condescendance making him feel indignation and disgust at the same time. The more he thought about, the more outraged he felt by the whole situation. It was just plain unfair. So unfair!

After a while, the brown-haired man shook his head and tried to think about something else than that horrible discussion, telling himself that brooding over was not only useless, but also quite unhealthy. The chuunin then anxiously juggled with his options and wondered what he was supposed to do now. Should he tell people about it? Should he openly deny those rumors? Confront the said parents? Somehow, those options didn’t appeal the academy teacher much. He didn’t want people to know - gossipers as well as people close to him, as few as they were. The thought of finding support or even bothering to fight against the Principal’s unfair decision felt wrong and he didn’t want to worry people for nothing about it. No, he decided suddenly, he wouldn’t fight it. He had his pride. If they decided to fire him in the end, he sure as hell wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it like they probably expected him to - he knew he would only get treated with arrogance again. No, Umino Iruka would have nothing of that. He would held his head high and would not show his weakness, no matter what happened. Yes, that’s what he was going to do.

After a while, Iruka came back to his senses and came to an halt. The chuunin had been so engrossed with what had just happened at the academy that he had left his feet lead as they pleased and he discovered with surprise he had crossed almost half of the village in his dazzle. Looking at his watch, the chuunin realized he was going to be late for his meeting with Naruto if he didn’t hurry up. Walking faster, the chuunin headed for the ramen stand, which was located on the other end of the village. He hoped he wouldn’t be too late. He didn’t want Naruto to start worrying... The teen had such a promising future awaiting for him and still had so many experiences to live, he didn’t need to lose time worrying himself sick over the problems of a grown-up man like himself.

As he walked, Iruka tried to stop thinking about what had just happened and clear his mind. After all, he didn’t want to let what had just happened show in his behavior, which would definitely alarm Naruto. But more importantly, the academy teacher didn’t want such a stupid thing ruin his evening with the blond boy. They met so rarely... It would have been a shame to ruin the little time they could spend together. They would have a good time tonight, he decided.

Anyway, just being with the teenager would probably cheer him up, and with what just took place at the academy, he somewhat needed it. The prospect of seeing the blond boy was already lifting some tension from his shoulders. He looked at his watch and realized he wouldn’t make it in time if he didn’t take a few short cuts. Jumping on the roof of the nearest building, the brown-haired man run on the roofs to win some time. He slowed down when he approached the ramen stand a few minutes later and joined discreetly the crowd busying itself on the street nearby. He could see from the distance that Naruto was already waiting for him by the bar, chatting cheerfully with the owner by the look of it. Sighing with relief, Iruka joined him.

“Hi Naruto!” he greeted the blond boy, smiling.

“Hey, Iruka-sensei!,” the teenager greeted him back with enthusiasm, “How are you doing?”

They started talking companionably about everything and nothing, commanded their meal and talked some more. Naruto just came back from a small C-ranked mission to a nearby village with the rest of his team and was telling him about some interesting things he saw during his short “journey”, as he liked to put it. Iruka relaxed, letting the blond teen’s words soothe him. The vibrant energy and enthusiasm of his ex-student made him smile fondly, like only the teen could make him smile.

“...And then, I sneaked inside, you know, just to see. But that idiot Sasuke just showed up and blew up everything!”

“More like saved your sorry ass, moron,” came a voice from behind them. Iruka didn’t even need to look around; he knew to whom that low, sarcastic voice belonged.

“Say what?” Naruto burst out indignantly. “Like I needed _your_ help! I was fine on my own before _mister_ the prodigy angst king Sasuke-teme showed up!”

“Yeah, right,” the raven-haired boy answered back, totally indifferent. “Good evening, Iruka-sensei.”

Turning around to greet the teenager, Iruka was shocked to discover Sasuke wasn’t alone. Along with him was Hatake Kakashi, his hands stuffed in his pockets in a nonchalant way. At the sight of the masked man, the chuunin felt something sink in him. That was just his luck... The Principal, and now _this_.

Iruka wished the Copy nin would just turn around and leave, or remember he had an old lady stuck in a tree to save, but the silver-haired man seemed to have no intention to leave. That made Iruka nervous. Damn. All the academy teacher wanted was to relax, forget about what he’s been told previously and have some quality time with his favorite ex-student. But somehow, something was telling him that it wouldn’t be the same with Hatake Kakashi hanging around him. But since the man seemed to be there to stay, Iruka fought the anxiousness building in him and decided to play it cool and not let the man’s presence affect him too much. After all, they were only eating at the same restaurant with their students, there was nothing to get sick over.

“Good evening Sasuke-kun, Kakashi-sensei,” the chuunin greeted them politely. Sasuke nodded faintly and the Copy nin simply waved at him, his right eye curving happily. Then the raven-haired teen sat down beside Naruto, on the seat right next to the wall. Kakashi seemed to freeze when he realized there was no place left beside the dark-haired teen; obviously, he had not planned to sit beside the chuunin. The silver-haired man hesitated a bit warily, but finally settled on the seat next to Iruka’s, much to the man’s mild mortification. Feeling uneasy, Iruka focused his attention to the blonde and tried not to think too much about the jounin’s presence, even though some part of him found his attitude a bit cruel now that he knew the man fancied him.

“What’s up with you? It’s so rare to see you around here; I thought ramen was not healthy enough for the _great_ Uchiha Sasuke,” Naruto teased his team mate with a smirk.

“It was Kakashi-sensei’s pick, not mine,” the Uchiha heir replied dully. “I’d rather not come here, but I owed him a meal.”

“Yeah right,” was Naruto’s skeptical answer. But his skepticism was soon forgotten as his and Iruka’s orders arrived, Naruto happily digging in his large beef ramen bowl, eating it with obvious delight. Iruka smiled fondly at the teen’s enthusiasm and started eating his own chicken ramen bowl at a much slower pace. The waitress took Kakashi and Sasuke’s orders and went away.

“Oi dobe, don’t eat so fast,” the black-haired teenager said as he watched his friend and team mate wolfing down his meal, “You’re going to choke on it.”

“Shuh up, t’heme,” Naruto answered back between two mouthful of hot noodles.

“Tch. If you choke I’m letting you die here. It’ll look nice on your tombstone: _killed by ramen noodles_.”

“Swew ‘u Sashke.”

“Don’t waist your time on him Sasuke-kun,” Iruka commented with an amused smile. “With Naruto, this is a lost case.”

“Hey!” the blond teen swallowed difficulty his huge mouthful. “It’s not fair! I’m not that bad; I’m nowhere eating as fast as Kakash-sensei!”

“Maa, I’m not eating that fast,” the jounin replied mildly.

“WHAT!” the teen burst out, outraged.

Iruka chuckled at the scene, his two neighbors arguing together while he slowly ate his ramen bowl - well it was more like Naruto shouting at Kakashi while the older man dodged smoothly and with imagination his student’s accusations. Which only enraged even more the young man. Hearing Naruto bickering like that felt somewhat nice because it was reassuring: it reminded the chuunin that nothing had changed in this small aspect of his life, a thought he needed to hang on to when everything else was slowly falling apart. He knew that whatever happened, he could always count on Naruto to be the same boisterous and stubborn blond hurricane he was and the chuunin was grateful for that. That thought made Iruka smile; who would have thought he would come to think fondly of Naruto’s burst outs back when he used to teach him? Life sure was ironical...

After a few minutes of hearing constantly Naruto’s loud taunts, Sasuke told the blonde to shut up and Naruto directed his insults to his raven-haired team mate instead. Both boys started bickering together, throwing insults at each other in a familiar way. The chuunin smiled into his noodles as he listened fondly to their small quarrel; even though they had both gained maturity and became friends over the years, Naruto and Sasuke still fought and argued over the silliest things as they used to when they were twelve. People had gotten used to see them argue wherever they went and didn’t even give it a second look. They really had a strange relationship; Iruka suspected them to secretly enjoy their frequent quarrels.

Soon after that, Kakashi and Sasuke’s orders were served and both men tucked in. For a few peaceful minutes, they all ate in companionable silence. Even though he could feel Kakashi’s presence on his left, Iruka found himself relaxing a bit. After a while, the blond teenager started chatting with him about the weather, then Sasuke once again ravished Naruto’s attention with a well-placed insult and both boys started bickering again. The two grown-ups soon listened to the young men’s bickering for a moment, but after a while Iruka couldn’t help but feel self-conscious of the closeness between his and the famous jounin. They found themselves staring at their empty ramen bowls in an awkward silence, not knowing exactly if they were supposed to talk to each other or not. The whole situation made Iruka feel uneasy and a bit nervous, his heart caught in his throat. The silver-haired man seemed relaxed, a bit tired even, but the tension in his shoulders gave him away: he was nervous. They were both nervous. In fact, Kakashi-sensei was probably feeling more nervous than him, if those things the gossipers in the bathhouse had said were true. That thought reassured him a bit, no matter how silly it was. Stealing a hesitant glance at the silver-haired man, Iruka noticed that the jounin even seemed to be a bit... shy? Was that a blush? It was hard to tell with that mask covering most of his face... The idea of Hatake Kakashi being shy was a strange one, but in this kind of context, Iruka found that idea both cute and intimidating somehow. Or maybe he was just imagining the blush after all... Then, Iruka realized he had been openly staring at the jounin for over a minute and looked away, embarrassed.

Oh God, he was feeling like some twelve year old boy during his first romantic date with a girl. This was ridiculous, really.

“Hum, so...” Iruka started off after a while to break the unbearable silence. “Are the kids progressing well?”

The jounin beside him nodded shortly. “They soon will be able to stand on their own feet.”

Iruka chuckled at the faint nostalgia in the man’s voice. “I know how you feel. It’s always weird for me to see those brats who I taught what was chakra and how to hold a kunai graduating from the academy and becoming genins.” The Sharigan user turned his head around and gave Iruka an unreadable look. Under the man’s intense gaze, the chuunin felt a low blush rise on his tanned cheeks. Rubbing his neck, Iruka laughed a bit nervously. “Imagine how I feel when I see those same brats about to become jounins!”

At those words, Kakashi’s eye glintered with amusement.

“Jounins or not, I don’t think those brats you used to teach have changed much.”

The two teachers turned around and stared at the teens, who were arguing over what was the fastest route to walk to the mission room.

“Dobe, the 5th avenue’ll slow you down; it’s crowded most of the time.”

“So what? It’s mostly free during the night!”

“It has to be the shortest way all the time, not only after 9 o’clock, moron.”

“Shut up, bastard! Like using all those unnecessary detours and small streets is going to get you there faster - Iruka-sensei? Kakashi-sensei? Hey, why are you laughing?”

\--

They ended up talking together for half an hour. They were both a bit nervous of course, but things went well - having Naruto and Sasuke insulting each other right beside them had a soothing effect on Iruka and Kakashi-sensei probably felt that way too.

At first they uneasily did some small talk - the weather is horrible, how was your last mission, etc. After a while, Kakashi got more confident and they started talking about literature. Iruka was surprised to discover the Copy nin did not only read his infamous orange book; the jounin recommended him some interesting-looking books. He even, a bit shyly, offered him to lent him some of them.

Iruka couldn’t recall how, but they ended up talking about life and, for a second time, the chuunin was surprised to discover the older man had an unexpected depth in his thought process. He had always thought the jounin was a strategical and cool-headed person, yet the man had proved him that night that there was also an human side to him. He might have misjudged him... Obviously, there was more to Hatake Kakashi than what he let on. Read ‘underneath the underneath’, like he said...

That was what Iruka was thinking about as he soaked into the hotspring bath. The hot water felt nice against his bare skin and the brown-haired man allowed himself to relax into the warmth. His eyes closed, he mused about the silver-haired man. Now that he thought about it, it was the first time he had a real discussion with the jounin. Of course, he had already talked with him, but their short and erratic discussions had been mostly one-sided, the silver-haired man never talking much or fleeing away when he was expected to give a substantial answer. But it appeared Kakashi-sensei actually had some interesting things to say... when he was not too nervous around him to say them. The poor chap. When you actually watched him carefully, it was obvious that the man was feeling intimidated when he was with him. To think that he, a mere average-looking chuunin, could have that kind of effect on the great Sharigan Hatake Kakashi... It felt so strange. It left him with an hesitant feeling he couldn’t quite describe properly. A mix of warmth and incredulity, he guessed...

He wondered if the man had heard about the rumor. He probably had by now; every inhabitant of Konoha seemed to be only talking about it for over a week. Maybe that was why he had been so surprisingly talkative at the restaurant... That thought made the chuunin feel suddenly uneasy; what if he gave the jounin false hopes? But then again, Iruka reminded himself that the fact that his two students were with him probably helped him to keep his cool too. Yes, that made sense.

Sasuke and Naruto... A faint laugh escaped his lips. He remembered how both teens had argued all the time during the evening, exactly like they used to when they were twelve, as if nothing had changed. But when he thought about it, Iruka realized one thing had changed about their little quarrels: it was always Sasuke who provoked the blond man now, unlike it used to be years ago. Back then, Naruto was seeking for acknowledgement while the brunette boy wanted to be left alone, wishing to depend only on himself. So Naruto kept on provoking loudly his team mate and rival over the silliest things to get his attention, much to everyone’s annoyance. But as the years passed, Sasuke slowly opened his heart and was now looking for a support, even though he still liked to play hard to get and remain distant. It was somewhat cute to see Sasuke sparking off Naruto all the time like that in the same way the blond teen used to provoke him when they were twelve. And of course, it was a relief to know the raven-haired boy had finally decided to open up a bit and learned to trust and depend on others.

At some point, Iruka wondered if Sasuke’s need for the ramen lover’s attention was not induced by more than just the friendly feelings he held toward Naruto... It was a thought the academy teacher had been juggling with for quite some time, but it was the first time he seriously thought about it. What if Sasuke was interested in his team mate in more than just a friendly way...? It was not impossible; they were, afterall, only sixteen - that is to say, growing teens still trying to adjust themselves to new realities and possibilities... As far as he knew, Sasuke could be not even aware of how he truly felt for the Kyuubi holder. If he loved him, that is. It was still only a possibility.

Hmm... The brown-haired man wondered if his favorite ex-pupil could possibly return the raven-haired teen’s feelings. He knew that Naruto used to have a crush on his team mate Sakura, but that was back when he was still a genin. Boys at that age often had crushes like that, it didn’t necessarily mean the teen could not develop an interest for men... Man, was he really analyzing Naruto’s chances to be gay? Iruka rubbed his eyes with his hands, trying to chase away that idea. Not that he minded if Naruto was gay; he loved the little tornado like the son he never had and would always support him in his life choices, whatever what happened. He only wished for the boy’s happiness. But analyzing so coldly Naruto’s sexual preferences was just... wrong.

... Besides, Naruto had to go through such difficult ordeals in his short life... _Of course_ , Iruka would be glad if the teen found his special person in Sasuke. He would be the first one to encourage him in that way if it was the way he truly felt. But he couldn’t help but feel a bit sorrowful at the thought that Naruto might have to undergo even more pain because of his sexual orientation. And he surely would if he started dating the most popular and marriageable young man of the whole village. No doubts about it. Iruka could only wish Naruto would not have to go through what he had to go through with that rumor affair. And he was being optimistic, because Sasuke’s fans were much more violent and vicious than those gossipers...!

That chain of thoughts brought Iruka to muse once again about the silver-haired jounin. He wondered tiredly if Kakashi’s fans - because he was sure the man had some - would react violently if they openly started dating... The chuunin inwardly snorted; since when had he even started envisaging the possibility of going out with the Copy nin to start with? Now that he thought about it, he never seriously considered dating the man before... He was way too freaked out by the whole situation to bring himself to analyze his possibilities. But now that time had passed - and now that he realized the jounin would not bite him or jump on him if he talked to him - the thought of the Sharigan user being in love with him didn’t shock him anymore.

Did it mean he liked the jounin back? Not necessarily. He didn’t even know if he liked men _that way_ to start with... Normally people had those kind of reflexions around thirteen, when their hormones started to go wild. But back then, Iruka was still shocked by the loss of his parents and looking for any kind of support and somehow, he skipped that part of his natural development. So he never actually took the time to think about his preferences. But of course, he liked girls.

... Did he? Since he never really thought about it before, maybe he just _assumed_ he liked girls like most other males did. Afterall, he’s never had a girlfriend before – but of course, that didn’t mean he was automatically gay. Of course not.

Iruka sighed. Thinking about sex somewhat depressed him. It reminded him of his... lack of experience in that field. It was not that he had never _wanted_ to have sex – he wasn’t a puritan of something. But Iruka had always seen sex as something very intimate. So naturally, one-night stands never quite appealed him. He didn’t like to force things. He had a few small dates back in his youth, but it was never quite serious; most of the time, he was forced by his friends to have double dates because their girlfriends thought ‘it would be fun’. Iruka grimaced at the memory.

Of course, if he had wanted to get laid he could have started searching for a girlfriend more seriously, like many other single nins of his age did – start hanging at the local bar on Friday nights, flirt with strangers and subscribe to one of those popular meeting agencies. But once again, he didn’t want to force things. Maybe it was utopian or hopelessly romantic, but the chuunin believed that looking for his significant one was useless and that one day, he’d meet the right person.

... That, and he was hopeless at flirting. When he approached someone, he started to feel uneasy, like he was about to say something morally disturbing or something. And then he got nervous and started stuttering and stumbled on his words. Really it was not his kind of thing – it felt so unnatural, so forced. And so humiliating.

But as years passed by, the brown-haired man grew less and less optimist about his chances of ever finding love. He had already gotten used to the idea of remaining single for the rest of his life. As for his sex life... he had also gotten used to the idea of remaining... experience-less. Plus, at his age... he knew it was stupid of him to think that way, but he couldn’t help thinking that he was starting to get a bit old to... well, gain some experience. He was 28, afterall... At that age, normal people were married and had children already, yet he never even had sex! He never even kissed someone...!

To say the truth, it made sex a lot less appealing, not to say mildly frightening. Oh, he was not _afraid_ of his sexuality, but... the possibility of having sex with someone made him feel a bit anxious. And _that_ made the whole thing even more ridiculous; what would he say to his poor girlfriend after a few weeks of dating? “Sorry but I’d rather wait a bit more since I’ve never had sex before and it kinda scares me.” Yeah right... He knew he was a pathetic case, but he hoped he’d never reach the bottom like that.

Iruka sighed, his chain of thoughts getting him slightly depressed. The brown-haired man let himself sink deeper into the hot water, relaxing into the warmth. At some point, his sleepy mind wondered how it would actually be to do _it_ with someone... Skin against skin...

Would he be able to do it with a man? To be attracted or even aroused by a male body...? How would it feel to hold a man. How would it feel to be held by a man?

How would it feel to have wide, strong masculine hands roaming on his naked skin, caressing him, touching places nobody else had ever touched before...?

...Kakashi’s hands...?

Iruka felt a blush slowly rise to his tanned cheeks at the disturbing mental images that his sleepy mind had just come up with. Having such thoughts left him embarrassed, a bit shameful, slightly anxious and nauseous. But somehow he also felt a bit aroused by the thoughts.

... Well, he got his answer in the end. He guessed.


	6. Chapter 6

Iruka felt a peach in his hand and, deciding it was still too hard, tried another one. The sun-bathed fruit market was crowded and lively on that beautiful Saturday morning, people busying themselves around the stalls, trying to pick up the best goods at the lowest price. The brown-haired chuunin didn’t like to shop in such a maze, but he had gotten used to it a long time ago. Actually, the academy teacher was grateful for the fruit market’s agitation, because it was about the only public area where he wasn’t assailed by cold or condescending stares and followed by murmurs. At the fruit market on Saturday mornings, he was once again just a nameless face in the mass of anonymous nins busying themselves around the stalls.

Iruka would have never thought that thought would one day reassure him.

A bit sleepily, Iruka selected a few peaches he judged riped enough and paid the merchant. If it had not been for his empty fridge, he would have rather stayed home... His musings had kept him awake longer than he should have for the past two days and now that it was the week-end, Iruka only longed for his bed. Unfortunately, a lot of things needed his urgent attention - his empty fridge, the enormous pile of dirty clothes on his bedroom floor that menaced to invade the bathroom floor, his dirty dishes and tons of homework and exams that needed to be grated for Monday. At that thought, Iruka inwardly groaned. It was a real pain to have all those to correct even when his dismissal was eminent. And being the nice, loyal and hard-working teacher he was, he would work like mad during the whole week-end to correct all those exams and homework in time. And he’d probably get fired just afterward, Iruka thought bitterly. That was just his usual luck.

For a matter of fact, he was a bit surprised he hadn’t been fired yet. Anyhow, he knew it was only a matter of time before he was forced to leave the academy. They probably just hadn’t found his substitute yet. After all, your average chuunin usually didn’t have what it took to teach pre-genins – it was a more demanding task than what people generally thought. That thought made the chuunin smirk – he was not irreplaceable, like the Principal had said, but it looked like he wasn’t that easy to replace in the end.

Hurrying out of the crowd around the fruit market, Iruka made his way to the fish stalls, wondering what he’d have for diner. He could always cook roasted fish - it would be nice with some of the vegetables he had previously bought and white rice. Which reminded him he also needed to buy more rice because he was running out of it - he needed to remember to go to the department store after he was done here to buy some.

Fortunately for the chuunin, the fish stall was a lot less crowded than the fruit market - it was understandable, since the fish sales took place on Sunday mornings. But Iruka couldn’t care less to come back on Sunday to pay 20 cents less for a salmon steak.

As he walked around the stalls, looking for his future diner, the chuunin heard two middle-aged women chatting a few feet away from him. He did not pay attention to what they were saying, but their words reached his ears anyway. As he was shopping, he distantly overheard them talking about the son’s of one of their friends, who, shamefully enough, had gone through the chuunin exams _four times_ and had still not managed to get promoted. Of course, they then started to deplore the sloppiness of their friend’s household on the same disapproving tone. Iruka thought ironically he was glad he didn’t have friends like those. He bet they’d just turn around and beam at their so-called friend if she was to run into them right then.

As he was wondering if he felt more like eating salmon or tuna, Iruka heard them say his name. The chuunin remained emotionless as he picked up both fishes, deciding in the end that he could always have fish tomorrow as well. He didn’t want to hear what they could possibly say about him. Seriously, he didn’t. He was tired already of all those stories about him and didn’t want to know what new piece of information was circulating about him through the village. But somehow the brown-haired man found himself listening to what they were saying as the two women continued gossiping, unaware of his presence.

“... together, you say?” said the first woman curiously with her high-pitched voice.

“So I heard; they were eating at the restaurant two days ago. A fancy one, too.” _Sure_ , you don’t get fancier than the Ichiraku ramen stand, Iruka snarled inwardly.

“You think it was date?” her friend asked briskly.

“I don’t think so. I heard the jounin walked in by error - a friend had brought him there for dinner and his friend ended up sitting at the same table as Iruka.”

“And so Kakashi-sama ended up eating with the chuunin?”

“Seems like it.”

“How tiresome, now I bet the chuunin’s gonna get his hopes up.”

Iruka sighed - some people in his village had far too much free time on their hands. To spy on them at the ramen bar and then spread the news of their “date” through Konoha like that... But the chuunin was even more surprised at how far-fetched those stories sometimes ended up to be after they had gone through the village’s gossip channel. It was truly frustrating to hear people talk about him like they personally knew him when there was barely any truth left in what they said - if there was some traces of truth to begin with, of course.

Days ago, such a situation would have made him angry and he would have left the fish market like he hadn’t heard the gossipers, not wanting to show that what they could come up with about it affected him, although it clearly did. But somehow it didn’t affect him as much as it used to. Maybe he got accustomed to be the main protagonist of the most popular rumor in town. Or maybe he just couln’t bring himself to care anymore.

“But there’s more; I heard that chuunin, that Iruka,” she said on a disgusted tone, “kept on treating him. Buying him _sake_.”

“Oh! You think he was trying to get him drunk to...?”

“Most definitely,” the woman whispered very fast, as if it made the whole thing easier to say, “There’s no other way he’d be able to have the Copy nin in his bed and he knows it.”

“But did he...?”

“Thank God no; the jounin had enough common sense to leave before the chuunin got him tipsy, or so I heard.”

“I bet he was pretty upset his little plan had gone wrong,” the second woman snorted.

Somehow, Iruka felt somewhat _daring_ that day.

“Indeed, I was quite upset,” he said off-handily to the two women, who turned around so fast Iruka almost feared their neck would give out. When they saw him, they froze and their faces blanched in the funniest way. “When I saw I couldn’t get him drunk, I tried to knock him off. Unfortunately, Kakashi-sensei didn’t seem to want to let me get a good hit at his head with the baseball bat, so I had to run after him through the whole village. I wasn’t able to catch him, but I managed to get close enough to take off his pants while he escaped. I kept them as a trophy - I’m thinking about putting them on my living room wall. What do you think?”

The women turned so pale their faces were starting to take an unhealthy grey color that made them look like they would die on the spot - from shock or embarrassment, Iruka couldn’t quite tell. Then they suddenly turned around and left promptly the fish market, walking so stiffly one could not help but notice them and stare. The chuunin laughed under his breath as he happily watched the gossipers positively running away from him, suddenly seemed highly interested by the ground under their feet. Somehow, Iruka couldn’t help but feel strangely happy with himself. This was definitely worth at least three sessions with a therapist, he decided with a smile. God, it had been fun! The chuunin mildly wondered why he hadn’t tried something like that before. At any rate, he was definitely going to do it again if the occasion presented itself, he decided.

Buying his tuna and salmon steaks, Iruka shifted his bags in his hands to get a better hold of them and headed for the department store to buy some rice before going back home to all the cleaning and grading that awaited him. But even that thought couldn’t quite depress him him, his little ‘discussion’ with the two strangers compensating largely for it.

As he was walking down the street to the store, Iruka caught sight of a familiar bright orange jacket on a nearby busy street. Smiling, he decided to stop and say hello to his favorite blond tornado before finishing his errands and going home - it was not like the homework and exams he had to correct would miss him anyway. But as he approached the blond-haired teenager, Iruka couldn’t help but notice that many people on the street were shooting curious stares at the said orange jumper. As he finally had a clear sight of the street, he understood why.

In the middle of the street stood Team 7, the three teenagers pulling with difficulty at Hatake Kakashi’s arms, trying to drag their hesitant teacher and team leader in a very childish way into a nearby store. All around them stood a little crowd of people who stared at the surrealist scene with mildly surprised interest.

“Come on, Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto huffed, giving the jounin’s arm a powerful tug that, combined to his team mates’ efforts, hauled the reluctant man a few inches forward.

“But I don’t-”

“Cut it out already!” Sakura hissed angrily, panting slightly. “You’re not a child anymore!”

“What are you doing?” Iruka interrupted them flatly, staring at the small group. The jounin and his students froze at once at the sight of the brown-haired man standing in front of them, a strange guilty look appearing on their surprised faces - the kind of look children gave their parents when they were caught with a hand in the cookie jar. In a matter of seconds, the three teens stopped to drag the obviously reluctant Copy nin and were facing their ex-teacher with broad, obviously fake smiles - except for Sasuke, who of course did NOT smile in public. The jounin, on the other hand, looked positively embarrassed, the only part of his face peaking out of his mask being as red as a tomato. Iruka was under the impression the silver-haired man wished the ground could swallow him right then, if the way he was staring at the street under his feet was any indication. As he gave a closer look, the brown-haired man noticed that the three chuunins still hadn’t completely let go of the jounin’s wrists, which probably explained why he hadn’t fled by now.

“I-Iruka-sensei!”

“Sensei! How nice to see you here!” the pink-haired teenager greeted the academy teacher awfully sweetly.

...yeah, more like awfully suspiciously, the chuunin thought skeptically.

“We, hum, were just doing some shopping with Kakashi-sensei,” she added on a more normal tone, but she kept on smiling at him a bit too brightly for Iruka’s taste. “He needs to wear something else than his old uniform if he ever wants to find himself a lover one of these days, don’t you think?”

From behind his students, Kakashi looked like he wanted to _die_.

Staring at Sakura and Naruto’s apparently innocent smiles, Iruka was suddenly hit by an idea.

 **They knew**.

Team seven knew for the sensei’s feelings and was trying to match them up together. Now that he thought about it, it made so much sense that Iruka didn’t understand why he hadn’t thought about it. Naruto’s kind words... The supposedly unplanned meeting at the ramen stand, the way Naruto and Sasuke kept on arguing together... And now this. Oh, those _little...!_

But instead of showing his irritation, Iruka smiled at them. He didn’t know why, but he felt somewhat _rebellious_ that day. Oh, yes, that was the word. Rebellious.

“Oh, but I do think his uniform suits him well too,” Iruka said casually, returning his ex-students’ innocent smile. The academy teacher couldn’t have hoped for a more amusing reaction; his three ex-students stared at him with shocked expressions, gaping wide-eyed at him like he just have announced them he was going to play in a porn movie. But Kakashi-sensei’s reaction was even more interesting: the jounin openly stared at him with wide eyes, his face turning into an interesting shade of puce.

“I’ll get going now, see you later,” he said warmly to the dumbfounded group before turning around and walking away. He knew there was no point waiting for an answer; obviously, they were too stunned to be able to answer back. Iruka had to suppress giggles of mirth at the thought as he walked away, feeling so amused with the reaction he got out of Tean seven and their teacher that his cheeks hurt from smiling.

But more than anything else, Iruka was proud to have ruined their little plan somehow. That’d teach them to want to play matchmakers! What were they thinking anyway? That he’d fall for Kakashi if they got him into nice clothes? Or if they met often enough at the Ichiraku ramen bar? Ha! What a joke!

Yeah, he knew his reasoning didn’t make sense. It didn’t even make sense to him. How was he supposed to have ruined their plan when he just openly complimented – and some would even say _flirted_ with the Copy nin? But he couldn’t care less. Their reaction was worth it anyway, and somehow nothing else truly mattered for the chuunin at the moment. As a matter of fact, the fact that he just flirted like that with Kakashi-sensei didn’t even upset him. He wasn’t worried about what the Sharigan user would think of it, since what he had told him was not clearly an hit-on line. And he couldn’t care less about the stories people would come up about it – at least, it’d give them something to talk about and, hopefully, they wouldn’t try to invent something weird about him in the following days. Like that he had raped Kakashi-sensei with a baseball bat or something. That thought made him snort with amusement.

On the whole, it was turning out to be a very nice day indeed.

Smiling to himself, the academy teacher made his way to his apartment, not minding the stares that still followed him as he walked through Konoha’s busy streets. It was only when he arrived home that it hit him.

He had forgotten to buy white rice.

\--

“... a bloody mess, I’m telling you,” a purple-haired woman sighed. She looked overly miserable.

“I bet you’re glad to be back. How long have you guys been away?”

“Only 5 days.”

“’Felt like months to me. I haven’t slept in days...” he friend called back from behind her in an hollow voice.

“So, hum, you know...” the kunoichi said more quietly, eying the mission desk curiously. “Anything new while we were away?”

“That’s it? You’ve just returned and the first thing you do is to ask what part of your favourite gossip soap opera you’ve missed!” her colleague said, indignant.

“I wasn’t-”

“ _Shhhht!_ ” someone called from beside them, giving them a slightly panicked look. “You wouldn’t want him to hear you; he’s in a _terrible_ mood today.”

And indeed, if they would have given more attention to their surroundings, they would have noticed how tense and heavy the air in the mission room was. In fact, a foul aura seemed to radiate from the mission desk, or more accurately from Umino Iruka, a brown-haired chuunin who was usually polite and collected but who literally seemed about to bite someone’s arm off that day. Which probably explained why nins waiting to hand in their mission report to him looked positively frightened at the prospect of facing the furious and possibly dangerous chuunin.

And they were right to fear the man’s anger because he’d been looking forward to snapping at someone for several hours now and if one of those jerks _dared_ to do something slightly inappropriate or to give him a less than flawless mission report, they wouldn’t know what had hit them. Unfortunately, those bloody morons were too bright to try anything funny when he was in this mood. Damn sissies...!

Approving yet another perfect mission report, Iruka inwardly growled. He had had a _nightmare_ of a day. Correcting all the homework and exams had taken him most of the weekend, leaving him positively exhausted and with a serious case of headache. Barely managing to sleep a few hours during the week end, he arrived at the academy to discover one of his colleague was sick and that, since there was a shortage of available ninja and that _nobody else_ had what it took to take care of the problem, _he_ was supposed to teach both his and his colleague’s classes until they found an appropriate substitute. Which proved to be a real nightmare, since his colleague’s students were one year younger than his and were quite _excited_ by their teacher’s absence and by their temporary relocation into Iruka’s classroom.

In what he had thought was a good attempt to deal with both classes, Iruka had hastily improvised a new plan for the day and had forced his very crowded classroom to go through a revision of the basics. Which turned out to be a very bad idea, since his students couldn’t care less about revising such old theory and instead started chatting and playing among themselves. As for the younger students he had to take care of, when they saw the older kids doing racket in the class, they got even more turbulent and the whole classroom soon found itself out of the academy teacher’s control.

Iruka forcefully tried to discipline them, but as he soon found out, his colleague’s students were a LOT less well-disciplined than his and obviously couldn’t care less to be given orders by someone who was not their teacher – Iruka even wondered if they actually took their teacher’s orders to start with. One little hellion even told him when he tried to get her to stop hanging herself from the fan on the ceiling that he was just a gay moron and that her father told her not to listen to anything he’d say while trying to kick his head with her tiny feet. Seeing how turbulent the other class was, Iruka’s students also started to challenge their teacher’s authority and ended up doing even more racket than their young classmates. Ink bottles flew in the air, children jumped on their desks and ran around the classroom after each other, laughing.

It was a real mess.

After a few hours yelling and several attempts to get the class to behave, Iruka gave up trying to force them going through a theoric revision and instead decided to take them out on the field for practical exercises. He had thought, in his sleep-deprived and aching head, that giving them the occasion to stretch their legs a bit would tame them a bit. Which proved to be even a worse idea than his first one. He spent most of the day running after small ninja wannabes who’s only objective seemed to be to make his life a real hell. How a bunch of 6 and 7 year old managed to uproot a small tree, put fire to a nearby bush, steal ink bottles and smash them onto the Academy walls, torture and try to drown an innocent stray cat, start a food fight and break two windows in less than 20 minutes, it was still a mystery to the brown-haired man.

Somehow, Iruka was under the impression someone was trying to convince him to resign.

When the bell announcing the end of the day rang, the little hellions hurried happily to the Academy gates, to Iruka’s utter relief. The chuunin hurried to stop the fire from spreading to the rest of the Academy grounds and to patch up the poor passing by stray, getting a couple of scratches from the wet scared cat on the way, his head throbbing painfully. By the time he was done with the cat, he was almost late for his mission room duties and he had to run all the way to the mission room, his head aching so bad he felt like it would split in two with every step he took and his empty stomach growling loudly and painfully as he hadn’t had the time to eat lunch during lunch break, too busy trying to prevent about 60 little hellions to do more damage than they already had. By the time he arrived at the mission room, he was in such a bad mood that people actually drew aside when they saw him approaching.

Approving yet another mission report ferociously, Iruka growled inwardly. He was tired, he was hungry, his head felt like it’s been crushed in a vice for _hours_ and he wanted nothing but to break someone’s jaw. And he had a pretty good idea whose jaw it could be... Because he was under the impression that they _wouldn’t be able_ to find a substitute for his sick colleague tomorrow morning... Or in fact for the rest of the week, lucky as he was. The thought made him positively glow with fury and he almost hammered the red approving stamp on the mission report the frightened-looking jounin in front of him had handed him fearfully. Since when were they short-staffed anyway? It wasn’t even a busy week at the mission room! Any jounin could have taken care of those brats, _any_! But nooooooo, they had to have _him_ doing it... Since of course, he was the most suited to do it!

He snatched the nearest mission report and started reading it hastily, getting even moodier at his own chain of thoughts. To his surprise, the nin in front of him actually spoke up his name. Jerking his head up angrily, ready to strike at whoever had been stupid enough to want a word with him, Iruka was surprised to find himself face to face with a masked Hatake Kakashi, who was watching him a bit warily. The chuunin inwardly growled. As if his day hadn’t been bad enough already! He really _needed_ to have a chat with the Sharigan user, really!

“What can I do for you, Hatake-san?” the chuunin asked in a slow, dangerous voice, ready to bite. To the Copy nin’s merit, the man didn’t even flinch at his poisonous tone, although the academy teacher saw several other nins backing away slowly from him.

“I merely wondered...,” the jounin started off slowly, eying him warily, “Hum, you seem to be a bit moody today... Had a bad day?”

“Really, I’m stunned by your deduction skills,” Iruka snarled at the older man, punching his mission report with the approving stamp so hard that the mission desk actually shook.

“I heard the Academy’s short-staffed...”

“It appears so. Now, if you don’t have anything better to do, _Hatake-san_ ,” the brown-haired man said dangerously, “please get out of the way, you’re blocking the mission desk.”

As courageous as he was, the jounin seemed clever enough to understand it was time for him to take his leave. He merely nodded good-bye to Iruka and went away and funnily enough, nobody seemed in a hurry to take his place and hand in their mission report anymore.

The rest of his shift passed atrociously slowly, his head pounding painfully during all the evening. By the time his duties were finally over, his head hurt so much that he didn’t even walk hone, he instead used a teleportation justu and appeared in a puff of smoke in his moonlight-bathed kitchen. Exhausted, he ignored his stomach’s protests, swallowed two painkiller dry and went straight to bed, hoping that his dreams would not be filled of filthy little pre-genins trying to set fire to a stray cat.


	7. Chapter 7

Iruka woke up with a start, alert and ready to defend himself if needed even though he had just been sleeping seconds ago. Silently, the chuunin scanned his surroundings, watching out for possible threats. His bedroom was dark and silent. His sandals, weapon pouch and chuunin vest were resting on the floor motionlessly where he had thrown them before tucking in. His clock’s digital numbers flashed rapidly on his bed table, showing that the village had known an electric breakdown somewhere during the morning. One hour and forty six minutes ago, judging by the hour the cheap clock indicated. Outside, Iruka could hear the distant sound of a thunderstorm dying away. Rain poured savagely on his closed windows, creating a soft, relaxing melody that did not bury the alarmingly close sound of the growling and dark sky above.

Iruka relaxed as he realized there were no signs of danger around him. The thunderstorm had probably woken him up... Sighing, he got to his feet, knowing far too well he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep even if he wanted to. Stretching his arms lazily, Iruka yawned. He was still feeling sleepy, but he felt rested nonetheless. Hopefully, he was rested enough to take care of around sixty little hellions that, he was sure, would await him once again that morning in his small and already wrecked classroom. That sinister thought did not cheer him up at all, nor did the prospect of facing the little army of troublemakers, but Iruka highly doubted that someone else would be assigned take care of his colleague’s class today – he even doubted the Principal had even bothered to try finding a substitute to start with. Hopefully, the brown-haired man would be able to clean up the mess they had previously done and think of a good strategy to keep those little monsters under control and, if possible, punish them for their unacceptable behavior _before_ the beginning of the class. He’d have to leave early for the Academy, though. And he needed to hurry up if he wanted to arrive early, because he badly needed to take a shower – he hadn’t even cared to change from his sweaty and dirty ninja uniform before going to bed yesterday.

Checking his watch, Iruka was stunned to discover that classes were supposed to begin in six minutes. _Six minutes_! Swearing loudly, he removed rapidly his stinky, dirty and crumpled uniform and put on a new one hastily, put on his sandals and his weapon pouch, grabbed his green chuunin vest and ran out of his apartment, sprinting toward the Academy, jumping front roof to roof to win time, not minding the icy rain pouring on him.

When he arrived at the Academy, panting slightly and his clothes drenched, he still had two minutes left before the beginning of the class. With rapid strides, Iruka hurried to his classroom, dreading the sight that was awaiting him inside the messy, hellion-filled classroom, which was probably already out of control... He wished he could come up with a brilliant idea to keep all those misbehaved and excited children from causing more racket than they already have and – possibly – try to teach them something as he did so. But unfortunately, when he arrived to his classroom, he still had no clue of how he was supposed to force 60 hellions to behave, and less to actually listen to him, even just for five little minutes. And, as if it wasn’t enough, he was bone-soaked. It seemed that today would be another bad day, Iruka mused darkly.

Bracing himself, prepared for the worst, Iruka entered the classroom. But to his utter astonishment, his classroom was not overcrowded like he had thought it would be; his colleague’s students could be nowhere to be seen. His students were there, sitting on the few desks that were not too dirty - not even bothering to pick up the junk on the floor, Iruka noticed with some annoyance. But where were the 6 year olds? Puzzled, the chuunin hurried toward the teacher office, but was lucky enough to run into one of his colleague on his way.

“Deremi-sensei,” Iruka called out to the man, “Do you know what happened with Yumo-sensei’s class? Is she back-?”

“No, she’s still sick,” the blond-haired man said rapidly as he almost ran toward his own class not to be late. “But I heard someone volunteered to take care of ‘em, so don’t worry!”

Iruka stared at the man’s retreating back, still trying to absorb the man’s words. Somebody _volunteered_ to take care of that class? The chuunin couldn’t believe his ears; who would be crazy enough among the other chuunins and jounins of the village to actually **want** to take care of thirty excited 6 year olds holding sharp objects and wanting to set fire to anything within reach? Half of the chuunin working full time at the Academy weren’t even there because they truly liked the job, so Iruka could barely imagine anyone from the outside deciding to come of his or her own authority to help them! And of course, the possibility that the Principal decided to request someone’s help could be ruled out as well, since the man would have been only too happy to ask Iruka to take care of the hellions for another day. But then again, Deremi-sensei had just said that the new substitute volunteered to stand in for Yumo-sensei, so the Principal probably didn’t even have the choice to let him or her do it...

Snapping out of his reverie, Iruka hurried to his own classroom, suddenly relieved. Whoever had been crazy enough to ask for Yumo-sensei’s job had the brown-haired man’s eternal gratitude, for it meant he only had his normal class to teach. And that meant he wouldn’t have to go through another nightmarish day like the previous one, because he knew for sure that he would be able to make his students behave now. And he would make them pay for their unacceptable behaviour, oh yes...!

When Iruka’s students saw their teacher enter the classroom, they suddenly felt silent. Iruka couldn’t tell if they calmed down because they knew they had done something bad or because of the expression on his face. But it truly didn’t matter.

“Today,” he called with his powerful teacher voice, “since it appeared yesterday that you know the basic theory and skills by heart, we will have an exam!” His students groaned. “Those who will have less than 80 on the test will have to do extra lessons at home during the weekend. But it shouldn’t concern you, since you all seemed to have mastered the basics long ago.” His students seemed worried by then; they knew what their teacher’s extra lessons were like.

“Afterward we will be doing some chakra theory together. _Yes_ , once again, Kikere-kun! And during the lunch break, all of you will have to clean up the mess you did yesterday,” the chuunin gaze’s went to the junk lying around and the dried ink on the desks, walls and the floor. The seven year old gasped, looking horrified. “And you will have to wash the ink on the Academy outside walls as well. Yes, even if it’s raining outside! I won’t let you go home until everything is clean once again, even if I have to keep you here until midnight!” The horrified murmurs turned into rebellious protestations.

“It’s not fair!” some dark-haired boy cried, “The _others_ wrecked the class too!”

“Yeah!”

“They were the one who threw the ink bottles-!”

“I don’t care!” their teacher spoke louder, his tone imperative, and all the little protesting voices died out at once. “You are older than them, you should have set an example for them. Instead, you incited them to misbehave and that’s not acceptable. I want you to think it over tonight and explain to me why what you did yesterday is wrong in a 500 word essay – and write _something else_ than what I just told you. And if you copy one of your friends’ essay, I will know and you’ll have to do it again with even more words! I want those essays on my desk first thing tomorrow morning. And consider yourself lucky I don’t give you all a detention! Now, take out a sheet of paper and a pen in silence as I write the questions for your exam on the board.”

Iruka heard another collective groan and smiled to himself as he started writing improvised questions on the big black board.

\--

“Okay, cleaning time everyone!” Iruka called to his students when the bell announced the lunch break. “I want to see this room shining! And don’t forget about the Academy wall as well! Nobody’s leaving the class to eat or even to go home as long as I’m not happy with your work!” He heard several moans and received a couple of dark glares, but everyone complied to his orders. Iruka sighed as he sat back on his chair. His clothes were still damp, even though he had tried to sponge them up with a towel while his students were writing down their answers for the exam and he was feeling a bit cold. He hoped he wouldn’t catch a cold...

To Iruka’s relief and satisfaction, his students had been calm so far – nobody had tried to escape yet, which was truly impressive. But Iruka knew that if he was to leave them by themselves for even less than a minute, their new-found docility would disappear as fast as it had showed up. Which annoyed Iruka, since he was _starving_ ; his stomach had been growling and hurting for a couple hours now. It had to be expected afterall – he hadn’t eaten since yesterday morning. Iruka inwardly groaned, cursing at himself for forgetting to bring something to eat with him in his haste to arrive on time at the Academy. In a normal situation, he would have been able to grab something to eat at the cafeteria, but he couldn’t leave his students unsupervised now – especially since what they were doing was supposed to be a punishment. If he was lucky, he might be able to buy something to eat on his way to the mission room after the end of the classes... Sighing, Iruka tried to ignore his growling stomach and started correcting the exam his students had done in the morning, keeping an eye all the same on a few students who had taken the bad habit of trying to flee from his most tedious classes.

After several minutes of correcting – and a few appointment of make-up lessons – Iruka was glad to see his students were starting to get organized and to do some real cleaning. With team work like that, they’d be able to finish cleaning the whole mess before the end of the lunch break. They might even be lucky enough to have time to eat before the class started again. As Iruka’s stomach growled louder, the chuunin started to feel a little envious of them.

“You seem to have well-trained them,” a voice came from the nearest window. Looking around, the academy teacher was surprised to find no other than Hatake Kakashi slouching over the window, holding loosely a dripping umbrella over his head.

“Kakashi-sensei?” Iruka sat up and walked to the opened window, bemused. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I just thought I’d stop by your class to say hi,” the jounin answered lazily, his eye curving happily. As Iruka approached the window, he noticed that, a few meters away, there seemed to be a lot of people on the Academy grounds, which was surprising since it was still raining. Stretching his neck to have a better look, the chuunin saw thirty or so students wearing small raincoats and running in circles, supervised by what looked like a dozen silver-haired and very wet jounins. Among the pre-genin, Iruka recognized the little girl who had been hanging from the fan and who had called him a gay moron the previous day, now looking flustered.

Kakashi seemed to have seen him staring at the young girl. “Out of all those little monsters, I’d say she’s the worst. She bit two clones, tried to escape three times and keeps on telling me her dad’s gonna kick my ass.” The jounin gave a low sarcastic chuckle that made it obvious he’d like to see the said dad try.

Iruka’s eyes went back to the silver-haired man, who was staring at the little hellions peacefully. Suddenly, the chuunin felt breathless. So it had been Kakashi who had volunteered to take care of his colleague’s class...? But why would he...? Butterflies were suddenly fluttering in a weird way in his previously aching stomach as the obvious answer to that question hit him. There was no way he had volunteered to take care of 30 dangerous little monsters like those only because he was feeling like it; the jounin was known to be bizarre at times, but not _that_ bizarre. He remembered how Kakashi had approached him the previous day at the mission room, asking him if he had had a nice day and if there was a shortage of teachers at the academy... So he had known all along for Yumo-sensei’s absence and he... had done it for him...? The butterflies fluttered madly in his empty stomach.

Iruka didn’t know what to say. He felt confused, several feelings battling for dominance in his chest. He felt embarrassed and remorseful to have snapped so harshly at the man the previous day, but he also was feeling oddly uneasy and slightly pleased by the man’s sweet attention. He didn’t know what to say - hell, he didn’t even know what to feel anymore. The Copy nin was still watching the six year olds from under his umbrella, but Iruka could see faint pink slowly creeping on the only exposed part of his face. To his utter embarrassment, he felt a blush creep to his own tanned cheeks and looked away, feeling stupid and oddly annoyed at himself for blushing for no reason like that. As he turned his head around, he realized that the classroom had fallen silent and that all the little pre-genins were staring at them, looking confused, although a few of them – mostly girls – were grimacing or giggling silently at the sight of them.

“What are you doing?” their teacher snapped loudly at them, his cheeks burning with embarrassment. “Go back to cleaning, all of you! Hurry up if you want to have finished before the class starts again! You won’t be allowed to eat or to go home until it’s done!”

At once, the thirty or so seven year olds dashed to the wastebaskets and the ink-splashed walls and desks, their little hands working fast to try to remove as much dirt as possible. Beside him, Iruka heard the jounin chuckle.

“They really seem to like you a lot.”

“Yeah.”

“They might be a little restless in the afternoon if they don’t eat though.”

“Oh, I’m confident they’ll behave,” Iruka answered simply, smiling at the busy classroom. “They know it’s in their best interest.” The jounin chuckled again at the silent threat in the brown-haired man’s voice.

“But shouldn’t you be watching over your class?” Iruka asked in a causal voice, giving the Sharigan user an amused look.

“Mmm? But I do,” answered the jounin lazily, looking over his shoulder at his clones still watching over the six year olds.

Iruka was about to say something, but just then they both froze at the sound of his stomach growling loudly. Looking away, Iruka fought back a blush, cursing at his stupid stomach for such bad timing. There was a short, uneasy silence between the two men.

“Hum... Hungry?”

Iruka laughed a bit nervously, scratching the bridge of his nose out of habit. “I woke up late and I forgot to bring a lunch.” There was a short silence; the silver-haired man seemed to be hesitating somehow.

“You know, I was about to go out to eat myself,” the jounin said on a casual tone, his gray eye carefully avoiding Iruka’s as he did so. “If you’re hungry, we could... go together.”

At those words, Iruka started to feel uneasy and slightly panicked. Was Kakashi... asking him out?

“Ah, thanks, but I can’t leave the class unsupervised...”

“That’s not a problem,” the Copy nin replied, a clone suddenly appeared out of nowhere beside him and waving at Iruka, who was all of a sudden feeling very anxious.

That was an invitation, right? Not a date, surely not... Kakashi was merely proposing him to eat together, right? But Iruka had a feeling the jounin hadn’t really planned to eat out until now... They would be alone together. No boisterous Naruto around. Just the two of them. Iruka imagined them sitting face to face on a small, candle-lit round table in a dark corner isolated from indiscreet ears and felt his heart pounding faster in his rib cage, a mixture of feelings he didn’t quite recognize washing through him. Suddenly, the chuunin felt very small in front of the older man, who seemed too close for comfort.

On the other hand, he did feel very hungry... Okay, he was positively _starving_ , but... he didn’t know about it... The more he thought about it, the more nervous and panicked he felt.

But he was being silly, really! What did it matter if they ate together? It wasn’t like Kakashi was going to jump on him and try to rape him in the nearest dark alley when they got out of the restaurant! There was absolutely no reason why he should be _scared_ of eating alone with Kakashi-sensei to start with; it wouldn’t make a big difference from when they ate together at Ichiraku a few days ago, since Naruto and Sasuke argued together most of the time and almost took no notice of them.

His stomach decided to manifest itself at that precise moment, growling yet louder.

“I take it as a yes,” the jounin said in a low, amused voice as he backed away to let his clone enter the busy classroom. Iruka stared at the clone, who winked at him, walked to his desk and made himself comfortable on his chair. For a second he wanted to protest, but then the chuunin decided to give up and just go with it. To see where it’d take him.

“Sure, let’s meet at the entrance,” the academy teacher said, smiling slightly. The jounin nodded and waved at him before turning around, heading for the entrance doors.

“Okay everyone!” Iruka called loudly to the busy classroom, thirty little heads turning around to gaze at him. “I’m leaving, but Kakashi-sensei here,” he pointed at the clone smiling behind his desk, “will keep an eye on you to make sure you behave. If even only _one_ of you tries something funny while I’m gone, I’ll keep you all after class all week long for detention! Have I made myself clear?” His students nodded silently, stealing curious glances at the weird man sitting behind their teacher’s desk.

Satisfied, Iruka hurried out of the classroom, but then it hit him. He turned around and, instead of heading to the entrance, he made his way to the staff room. As he approached, he could hear his colleague’s faint voices getting louder and louder and he could not help but think they were probably talking about him. Which was quite ironic, since the last time he had come there at lunch hour, he had thought for sure they couldn’t possibly talk about him, since he was so _normal_. Funny how things changed...

Not bothering to knock, Iruka entered the staff room and everybody froze on the spot, looking like children caught stealing cookies ten minutes before dinner. Obviously, they **had** been talking about him.

“Sorry to interrupt your little chat, but could I please borrow someone’s umbrella for the lunch break?” he asked his colleagues, who stared at him blankly.

“Ehh? You’re eating out, Iruka-sensei?” someone asked on a incredulous tone, as if it was the last thing he thought the chuunin would be. Iruka couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

“Why yes, I guess I am. Something wrong with that?”

“N-no!”

“We just thought it was, erm, quite rare for you to leave the academy grounds during breaks,” the purple-haired woman teaching in the class right next to his, Uutaru-sensei, said quietly, eying him suspiciously.

“Yeah!”

“Are you having a date with someone, sensei?” he heard someone ask swiftly.

“Wha- I beg your pardon?”

“Oh, come on! It’s gotta be it! You _never_ eat out!” came the jubilant answer and Iruka could feel the other teachers closing in, a hungry expression on their faces, their eyes shining hopefully at the prospect of the information they might get out of him. Or more like the new rumors they could spread around the village. Iruka never knew his love life could be this interesting; he was mildly annoyed and a little freaked out by his colleagues sudden greediness. Then, a torrent of questions rushed down on him.

“Who’s the girl, sensei?”

“Is it a girl?”

“Have you gotten over Kakashi-sensei yet?”

“Is it true you’re dating?”

“Are you seeing Kakashi-sensei?”

“ _Is it a girl_?”

“That’s none of your business,” Iruka spoke coolly, now truly annoyed, “If you’re so curious, why don’t you go and ask your questions to Kakashi-sensei instead?”

The staff room fell silent - they needed not to answer the brown-haired man’s question, for everybody in the room, Iruka included, knew perfectly well they’d never have the nerve to.

“Now can anyone lend me their umbrella, please?” Iruka asked again, as if nothing happened.

“Y-you can have this one, Iruka-sensei. We found it months ago but nobody never claimed it. Here.” A young chuunin whose name Iruka couldn’t quite recall motioned a dark umbrella toward him and Iruka took it, quietly thanking him before turning on his heels and leaving the room as quickly as he had come, not minding the least all the murmurs he heard the teachers exchange at the precise moment he set a foot out of the room. As his colleagues’ whisper died away, Iruka couldn’t help but feel that, even though he would have preferred avoiding it, his little trip to the staff room had been worth it. Because there was _no way_ he was going to walk through the village under Kakashi’s umbrella! This was definitely worth a couple more rumors. Yes, definitely.

Anyway, with what he had just told them, the rumors his colleagues could come up with didn’t even compare to what people would say if they saw them walking together under the _same umbrella_. The chuunin shuddered at the thought.

Walking out of the Academy, Iruka joined the silver-haired man, who was waiting for him under the shelter of his dripping umbrella, standing abnormally still, Iruka noticed.

“Sorry I made you wait,” Iruka apologized with a small sorry smile, opening his own umbrella as he did so.

“Ma, I don’t mind, sensei,” the jounin said back casually. “Shall we go then?”

Iruka nodded and the Copy nin led the way, the chuunin walking alongside of the older nin. The air was cold and water was pouring over their heads steadily, droplets falling with faint splashing sounds on the wet and mostly deserted roads. They walked in silence for a moment, and Iruka mused that they must have been a strange sight, walking together silently under the torrential rain like that. He was pretty sure that, before the end of the day, the whole village would know he ate with Hatake Kakashi, but it wasn’t like he cared anymore about those stupid gossips.

Iruka then realized he had still no clue where the other man was taking him. Of course, it couldn’t be too far from the Academy, since they needed to head back to their classes in 40 minutes...

For a dreadful second, Iruka feared the jounin would take him to one of those small, discreet and definitely romantic restaurants young couples were so fond of and the brown-haired man felt his throat tighten painfully, panic taking over him as he imagined himself once again sitting face to face with the Copy nin by a small candle-lit table. But then again, they only had 40 minutes to order their lunch, eat and head back to the Academy, so they truly didn’t have the choice to go somewhere they could eat fast. Like take out restaurants. The chuunin felt greatly relieved at that thought. Nonetheless, he wondered where the man was taking him. But he didn’t ask and they kept on walking silently.

... As they walked, the brown-haired man mildly wondered if the Sharigan user was nervous. Not that he let it show, of course... But still, Iruka was sure _he_ would be nervous if he was about to eat alone with his crush for the first time. That thought made his heart beat a little faster.

After only a few minutes of walk, Kakashi motioned Iruka toward a small, cheap-looking but welcoming yakitori bar. They sat down at the empty bar and Iruka felt the warmth the whole place emitted warming up his cold muscles at once, glad to be sheltered at last from the cold rain. Obviously, Kakashi seemed to be a well-known customer of the place, since he ordered the cook, a skinny old lady, to serve him and his “friend” the same as usual. The woman’s eyes narrowed on Iruka for a minute, but she didn’t say anything and started to work on their order instead.

Both men remained silent for a moment, staring at their hands a bit shyly. The silence was starting to make Iruka feel slightly uneasy; he wanted to say something, anything, to break it. But words seemed to be caught on the back of his throat, leaving him speechless. Beside him, Kakashi-sensei seemed to feel the same way he did. With every second that passed, the silence between them seemed to become tenser, until the Copy nin, looking nervous, couldn’t stand it anymore.

“So, hum...” he spoke up quietly, obviously at a loss about what to say.

“Thank you,” Iruka breathed softly, finally managing to find back his voice. Beside him, the jounin seemed to be puzzled. “You know, for taking care of the kids.”

“Oh,” The Copy nin let out as understanding washed through him. “Well, I didn’t-”

“Don’t,” Iruka cut him, staring seriously at the other man. “I know you didn’t do it because you didn’t have anything better to do.”

At those words, Kakashi looked up and both men stared at each other. They didn’t say anything, for there was nothing else to say; Iruka felt as if their silence spoke of things that mere words could not express. Although he was not truly sure how it happened, he knew one thing for sure: for that short, silent moment, they understood each other. As they both stared intensely at each other, he felt it - he _knew_ understood, somehow, how he felt. He didn’t know how, but Iruka realized he Copy nin was aware _he_ knew what he felt for him, just how he loved him, how difficult it was for him to express it, how the brown-haired man’s presence made him lose his head... But at the moment, the jounin didn’t seem to mind the chuunin knew; he simply stared back the chuunin, and somehow Iruka felt he meant to tell him he simply understood. Understood the rumors were false. Understood how the knowledge of the silver-haired man’s feelings had stirred doubt and confusion in him. Understood how he couldn’t figure out his own feelings anymore, how it scared him...

Iruka couldn’t understand why he wasn’t running away from the man’s intense gaze, a gaze that told him the jounin knew things about himself so personal, so intimate he didn’t even want to analyze them himself. Yet Iruka was still there, staring back at the man silently. He was not scared, embarrassed or even disturbed by the news. In fact, it felt oddly right, as if a big misunderstanding had just been solved between them.

Some part of himself told him that they both knew the other had understood, and that thought made the chuunin feel oddly at ease, a pressure he hadn’t known he had to endure suddenly lifting from his shoulders. How strange.

And then, the cook set down their orders in front of them and the charm seemed to lift. Iruka felt confused; he didn’t understand what had happened exactly. Had he imagined it? But as he stared at his meal - chicken yakitori with chopped vegetables and white rice - he knew he had not dreamed it. At that thought, the chuunin felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment. Suddenly, the idea of running away seemed a lot more appealing... The jounin beside him seemed to be thinking something along the same lines, as Iruka saw from the corner of his eyes that the man was staring wide-eyed at his meal, his face beet red. He probably was also wondering how it had happened, Iruka mused. The brown-haired man suddenly felt bad for the poor jounin; there was no way the man would be able to pretend being nice to Iruka only by chance, and although he had known all along Iruka knew he loved him, the chuunin was pretty sure faking he didn’t know had given him courage. But then again, the fact that he, Umino Iruka, was still here even if he knew all of this probably encouraged and helped him a lot to open up. That, and the fact that it was not really a date.

Not officially, at least.

To try to change the subject, Iruka tucked in.

“Mm,” Iruka hummed, happily surprised as he chew on his food. “This is good!”

“Of course it is,” the jounin spoke up, seeming glad for the distraction. “Nimio-san makes the best yakitori in the whole village.”

“Ahh,” the chuunin answered, feeling a bit sheepish. “I wouldn’t know, I don’t eat out much.” He took another bite of the yakitori chicken and, remembering just how hungry he was, started eating with great enthusiasm. The cook gave him an approving look from behind the bar.

“Funny, I never thought you’d be a house-wife kind of guy.”

Iruka froze as he was about to bring to his mouth a mouthful of white rice. “ _A house-wife kind of guy_?”

“You know, good at house cores and cooking and stuff,” the silver-haired man explained simply, smiling at the water pint between them.

“So you thought what, that I could make water burn?” Iruka asked on a mock insulted tone and the jounin chuckled beside him.

“Do you?”

“Well, it’s true I used to be an awful cook,” the chuunin finally admitted with an easy smile, taking a mouthful of rice. “Thank God I’ve improved, I could barely cook eggs when my parents died.” That thought suddenly made him feel uneasy. To distract himself from his own sorrowful thoughts, Iruka added “I’m not fabulous, but I’ve never poisoned myself yet.” Kakashi chuckled.

“And you?”

“What?” the silver-haired man looked puzzled.

“Are you a _house-wife kind of guy_?” Iruka asked with a smirk.

“Oh... Well, I’m rather good at cooking, I guess... But I’m not exactly that much of a house chore guy, to say the truth.”

“Really?” Iruka sounded a bit surprised. “I had thought you’d be a kind of neat freak.”

“Me?” It was Kakashi’s turn to look mildly surprised.

“Yeah, I can just imagine you washing your bathroom twice a day with big yellow rubber gloves and a lilac apron and getting hysteric when someone leaves footprints on your entrance carpet.”

At Iruka’s words, Kakashi laughed. It was not one of his low amused chuckles; the Sharigan user’s laugh was frank and cheerful and it echoed through the small empty room powerfully, resonant inside Iruka’s body, making his heart beat faster. For a moment, the brown-haired man wondered if it was truly the jounin beside him who was laughing so openly, and why it made his breath itch like that.

“I hardly do,” the jounin finally answered, his voice unusually warm. “But I’m not messy either. I do own yellow rubber gloves and a baby blue apron with pink little flowers, though. Birthday gift from Gai - doubt he ever realized it was a woman’s.”

Their light discussion went on and Iruka soon lost track of time. He had not imagined being with the Copy nin could be so relaxing. He was not feeling nervous or awkward anymore. He was just feeling... at ease. It somehow surprised the chuunin, who hadn’t felt this good around someone for quite a long time. Maybe it had something to do with that strange moment of total comprehension they had previously shared, but Iruka doubted it.

“Iruka...” Kakashi’s tone was suddenly devoid of his previous cheerfulness and was slightly tense.

“What is it?”

“I think we should head back to the Academy.”

“Heh? What hour is it-?” Turning around, Iruka’s eyes caught sight of an old-fashioned clock on the wall in front of them and he swore loudly, brutally got to his feet and dashed toward his workplace, cursing himself for his recklessness. He couldn’t believe it! The lunch break was over nearly twenty minutes ago!

* * *

.


	8. Chapter 8

Iruka jumped from roof to roof rapidly, trying to get to the Ninja Academy as fast as he could. He was not too worried about his students: after all, Kakashi’s clone was watching over them. Nothing bad could have happened, right? Right. It was more the fact that he was so _late_ that really made him sprint to the Academy so fast. He still couldn’t believe he was 20 minutes late! _20 minutes!_

When Iruka finally arrived to the academy, a bit out of breath and slightly wet, headed for his classroom at once. To his relief, his prolonged absence had not caused a racket; his students were sitting together quietly on the now junk-less floor, eating their little sandwiches slowly. On the corner of his eye, he saw Kakashi’s clone sitting behind a neat pile of corrected exams, looking serene. On a closer look, Iruka noticed the seven year olds seemed fatigued - some of them even looked mildly anxious.

“Sensei!” some of them called when they finally saw him, looking now both excited and relieved. Obviously, his absence had worried them; after all, their sensei had _never_ been late before. Well, _some_ of them had been worried - Iruka could spot two or three little faces grimace with disappointment. Feeling a rush of affection for the little monsters, Iruka smiled. All around him, the little boys and girls were asking him questions, looking now curious.

“Where were you, Iruka-sensei?”

“What took you so long?”

“Why are you late?”

“Iruka-sensei’s never late!”

“Were you attacked by a group of missing nins?”

“Can we have the afternoon free, since you were late?”

“No! Let’s get rid of the essays!”

“You forgot us, didn’t you?”

“Why are you late?”

“Did _he_ do weird things to you?” one little girl asked him as she eyed Kakshi’s clone warily, which was at the moment taking his leave. Iruka was under the impression she had been asked that question by her worried mother once but never quite understood what it was about.

“Now, now!” Iruka said loudly to shut the little curious voices. “I’m sorry I’m late everyone! But let’s not waste more time than we already have - go back to your desk and get out your notebooks and pencils, we’re going to continue taking notes about chakra!”

There was a collective groan and some rebellious students protested, but one stern look from their teacher and their protests suddenly died in their little throats. They grunted and returned to their seats half-heartedy and Iruka was glad to see that the room was actually clean - it was not spotlessly clean, and Iruka swore he saw the edge of a banana peel sticking out of a big closet, but it was acceptable. In the end, his absence had been a good thing: it had allowed the kids to eat a bit before the beginning of the class and, even though he had said to Kakashi that it wouldn’t matter, Iruka knew far too well how students got restless when they were hungry.

As the seven year olds were taking out their notebook dully, Iruka wondered if the other teachers had noticed his absence... They probably had, seeing how they seemed to be stalking him on the Academy grounds lately. And after what he’d told them earlier, Iruka was pretty sure they had been watching for his return anyway. He wouldn’t even be surprised that the whole village knew about it by the time he reached the mission room to do his mission room duties in the evening... And when they would hear he and Kakashi had been having lunch _together_... Oh, they’d have a field day. He was pretty sure gossipers would be absolutely delighted to spread more or less accurate versions of that story in the following days. The chuunin expected the mission room to be very crowded again that evening...

When the children were ready, they started to work and, although the seven year olds had been not very cooperative at first, the afternoon passed away smoothly and Iruka forgot about his meeting with Kakashi. Toward the end of the day, someone knocked on the door. Surprised, Iruka stopped talking about chakra channels and went to open the door. One of his colleagues was standing behind it, holding a small white envelope in his hands.

“Sorry to bother you Iruka-sensei, but the Principal asked me to deliver you this letter at once.”

His tone was informal and slightly bored. Obviously, he thought the chuunin had just owned himself a written warning, which was not exactly unusual for the academy staff, as complains were common things and, most of the time, were not too serious. Iruka, on the other hand, knew very well that the seemingly innocent envelope was very unlikely to contain a mere warning... As he took the envelope from the man’s hands, he felt like doom had just fallen on him all of a sudden, and nothing seemed to matter again as he stared at it blankly. He heard the academy teacher say him good bye and answered him dreamily, closing the door slowly behind him.

The chuunin stood there, staring at the white letter blankly. He had known all along it would happen in the end, but he had hoped... He felt his students’ curious eyes on him, but it didn’t really matter at the moment.

Carefully, he teared up the envelope, opened the letter and read it twice, his expression strangely distant.

So now it was official. It had been his last day as a teacher of Konoha’s Ninja Academy. He had been fired.

Feeling rather empty, the chuunin stared distantly at the sky outside, through which thin rays of light lit up a bit the velvet green lawn of the academy grounds. The Principal had probably heard about his meeting with Kakashi – Iruka hadn’t imagined the news would spread so fast... And now he had been slacked. Funny, he had thought the news would upset him, cause him pain or at least frustration. But he wasn’t in pain; at first he had been surprised, but now he was feeling strangely serene.

Oh, it saddened him. A lot. He loved his job: he had always loved teaching, loved trying to force some common sense and knowledge into those kids, who still had so much to learn... And he sincerely would miss those little hellions, miss correcting their exams, miss their disappointed groans and their foolish attempts to skip classes...

Yet, he felt serene with it. Because he knew he had done the right thing to do. He had never allowed anyone to decide for him what he was going to do with his life, and he was determined to keep things that way. He would not let them decide for him, period.

Anyway, it was not like it was the end of the world. He could still do other things. He guessed he would have to start doing missions more frequently. Or maybe he could join the full-time mission room staff. Sighing, Iruka folded the letter and put in back inside the envelope quietly. He still had some time to think about it, there was no rush to find a new full-time job. His financial situation allowed it.

“Iruka-sensei?”

Iruka’s head jerked up toward his students and for a second, the brown-haired man was almost surprised to find he was still at the Academy. He felt like he had been miles away... Forcing his attention back to the classroom, he noticed that while he had been thinking, many students had taken the opportunity to start chatting among themselves or playing with their belongings. But a few pair of eyes were set on him, sending him puzzled and mildly anxious glances.

“What’s wrong, sensei?”

“Are you alright?”

“What was the letter about?”

“Never you mind,” Iruka smiled at them softly, putting the letter away in one of his pockets. Then he stared at the loud class in a nostalgic attempt to crave them in his memory. That seemed to make the youngsters, who had never seen their teacher act that way, feel wary.

“Okay everyone, that’s enough for today!” The chuunin suddenly ordered them loudly, making them all jump in surprise. “You can put away your things and go home. But before you leave, let me remind you that you’ll have to write me a 500 words essay on why your behaviour yesterday was unacceptable!” They groaned once again. “No matter what, you have to hand those in on this desk first thing tomorrow morning; I will know if you don’t. And tomorrow, I expect you all to make me proud, behave and show your new teacher how well-disciplined you are!”

“Our new teacher?” The students looked around, suddenly forgetting about packing their personal affairs away and hurrying back home.

“You won’t be there tomorrow?” a shy little girl asked, looking puzzled.

“I’m afraid I won’t,” Iruka replied casually as he started picking up his own belongings.

“Why? Are you sick?”

“Idiot! If he’d be sick, he wouldn’t be here today!”

“Watch your mouth, Sukaru-kun,” the teacher warned the little boy sternly as he put their exams inside his briefcase.

“Then why aren’t you there tomorrow?”

“Why, sensei?”

“Is it something top secret?” one brown-haired boy asked eagerly. “Some dangerous super secret mission?”

“That’s a stupid question to ask, Yahura!” a girl scowled her friend. “If it was a super secret mission, he wouldn’t tell you now, wouldn’t he?”

“Are you going to do something dangerous, sensei?” a tiny girl asked him silently, her eyes fearful. Behind her, Iruka could see several other students looking worried now. Inwardly groaning, the ex-academy teacher wished he hadn’t said anything to start with. He had just wanted to warn them so they wouldn’t jump on his substitute tomorrow morning, thinking he was an intruder or a spy - he had known some of them for long enough to know it was not beyond them to try to capture the man, convinced he was a missing nin from Hidden Rain or something. And although he didn’t know him, he did not wish such a thing to happen to a poor and inexperienced chuunin, who probably thought teaching a bunch of 7 year olds would be a piece of cake. Especially not on his very first day of work.

On the other hand, he didn’t want to worry his students more than necessary with his dismissal...

“Of course not, Juuri,” the chuunin smiled at the small girl, hoping to sound reassuring. “I’m not going on a dangerous mission, I promise. So don’t worry, okay?” Iruka smiled as he picked up a few more books and put them safely into his briefcase. While some students looked relieved, other looked a it put out, which amused the chuunin. He was pretty sure some of them would have loved to imagine their sensei fighting powerful and dangerous enemies in a far away and exotic country – coming back unwounded or _not_.

“But then why won’t you be there tomorrow?” some students insisted, pouting.

“Are you going into vacation then?”

“Yes,” Iruka lied distantly, now packing away his correcting pencils and the few sentimental possessions he had forgotten long ago in the back of his drawers.

“Heh? That’s unfair! How come you’ve got vacations and we haven’t?”

“Are you going to the beach?”

“Yeah, where are you going, sensei?”

“Can we come along? Like last year, when we all went camping in the forest?”

“Will you bring us souvenirs?”

“Oh, I want to have a shell from the beach! The ones that does sounds, you know?”

“Yeah, me too!”

“How long will you be gone, Iruka-sensei?”

The last question made Iruka feel a bit uneasy; he didn’t want to lie to them and disappoint them later on, but on the other hand, he really didn’t want them to make a scene. That was the last thing he needed... He knew those little monsters liked to play tough but could be really sentimental and irrational when it came down to it. There were still children, after all.

“Yeah, when do you return? Next week?”

“I’m afraid I’ll be away for longer than that,” the brown-haired man grimaced. Having to actually admit it, say it out loud, made it feel worse. “Now go back home already! Or I keep you for more chakra theory!”

Those words had the wanted effect on the seven year olds, who finished to pack their belongings hastily and ran away, happy to be able to return home and play, their mind free of all worries. As they hurried toward the door, some of them shouted good byes to their ex-teacher.

“Good vacation, sensei!”

“Bring us photos, please!”

“And souvenirs, too!”

“Don’t forget, I want a shell that makes funny sounds!”

Iruka watched them leave the class silently, a small sad smile on his lips. He had sent them home for the last time, the chuunin thought with nostalgia. He felt bad about lying to them, but he didn’t want to cause a scene... In fact, he didn’t want people to know, to worry over him. It had been his decision, he assumed it and to Iruka, that was all there was to say about it. So he didn’t see the necessity to tell them the truth.

He doubted his students would have understood anyway.

Sighing, he closed his now very heavy briefcase and gave the deserted room a last circular glance. It would be weird not to work here ever again... But he would get used to it on the long run, he was sure of it. It was not the end of the world, after all.

Without looking back, Iruka left the classroom and slowly walked toward the exit. He heard the bell ring, announcing the end of the classes and instantaneously, rumblings could be heard coming from the nearby classrooms as students hastily put away their belongings and left. Then, students started to run past him, setting off home laughing and chatting cheerfully. Somehow, Iruka felt oddly light as he walked along the happy pre-genins, as if he was once again a 7 year old running back home after long hours of class. But he remembered sadly that he was no longer a child and that he would not have to come back tomorrow for his next class; he fact, he would never come back again.

As the chuunin passed by a open doorway, he heard one of his colleague call after him.

“Iruka-sensei,” he said loudly to be heard over the noisiness of the hallway, sounding amused. “Where are you going with that huge briefcase? Are you moving or what?”

“Nah, I’m a going on vacation,” Iruka smiled, feeling highly amused all of a sudden. When he was at it, why not stick to the same story?

“You’re kidding! We’re short-staffed, sensei!” the man shouted back, sounding a bit alarmed.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, I’m sure they’ve already found a substitute for me,” Iruka smiled mysteriously at the frowning chuunin.

And then, he walked through the exit and left the academy - for good.

His mind felt oddly blank as he walked through the crowded streets. Absently, Iruka went back home, dropped his heavy briefcase, grabbed a fruit and headed for the mission room, eating on his way. He wished he didn’t have mission duties that evening, but alas he still had responsibilities... As he walked, he suddenly remembered his lunch with Kakashi-sensei. He had had a good time with the Copy nin, he had to admit. The man was not only interesting, he was also fun to talk with. But somehow Iruka couldn’t help but feel it had happened days, weeks ago; it seemed so far away... It seemed impossible he had laughed with the silver-haired man in that small Yakitori bar only a few hours ago... Yet he knew he had. Strange.

As he arrived to the mission room, Iruka threw the remains of his peach into a nearby wastebasket and pushed the transparent door open. Inside the mission room, there was a great deal of commotion; the room was packed again and people chatted in low, excited voices to each other. When they saw him enter the room, they suddenly calmed down and an awkward silence stretched on as Iruka stood on the threshold, staring at the crowd with mild surprise. With that letter in mind, he had completely forgotten the mission room was ought to be overcrowded with gossipers after what just happened during the day.

Iruka inwardly sighed. Ignoring all the eyes watching him carefully, almost hungrily, Iruka made his way to the mission desk and settled himself at his usual place, ready to start his shift. Some part of him wondered if they were gossiping about his “date” with Kakashi-sensei or about his recent sacking. Probably about both. Not that he minded much; he was used now to provoke this kind of reaction everywhere he went anyway. Besides, he had to admit that, for once, they truly had something to talk about. That thought made him snort with dark amusement.

Slowly, whispers could be heard through the room; people couldn’t refrain themselves from talking for very long, as Iruka had expected. The chuunin did as if he didn’t hear the voices and worked, approved mission reports given to him soberly.

Around 6 o’clock, people seemed to suddenly hold their breath and Iruka was not surprised to find the Copy nin standing in front of him soon afterward. At the sight of the man, he felt a bit uneasy and suddenly wished he could be anywhere else. He didn’t quite understand why though; hadn’t he just had a great time with the jounin hours ago? Why was he feeling not at ease again? Why was he feeling suddenly so shy? Was it because they were surrounded by gossipers who would be positively delighted to watch him squirm under the older man’s gaze? Or maybe it was because of that short, mysterious moment of complete understanding they had shared previously...? Iruka had to admit that thinking about it, about how they both knew each other’s secrets, made him slightly nauseous as he stared into the man’s unblinking gray eye, his heart beating a bit faster. The man was standing in front of him, as still as a statue. Iruka guessed he was probably feeling a bit shy, nervous or even wary to confront him after what had happened between them, whatever what it had been. He knew he would if he were him. Willing himself to forget about those things, Iruka broke the uneasy silence to greet the man.

“Good evening, Kakashi-sensei.”

“Yo,” the jounin waved back, his single gray eye curving happily. They had broken the ice. Somehow that thought made them feel a bit more confident, like they were on safer waters now.

“What brings you here today?” the brown-haired man asked politely. “I thought you had volunteered to stand in for Yumo-sensei while she was sick?”

“Indeed I have, and I intended to keep on doing so for as long as my services would be needed. But you see, the Principal came and told me during the afternoon that Yumo-sensei seemed to feel better suddenly and would be able to come to the Academy tomorrow. Funny, isn’t it?” the jounin paused and it couldn’t have been clearer he felt the whole situation itself was so fishy it was amusing. “So I came to hand in my mission report for the day.”

Saying so, he gave Iruka a neat-looking sheet of paper, which Iruka took silently and started to read rapidly. After a few lines, he couldn’t help but smile. He had to admit, mildly impressed and oddly pleased, that the jounin had gone through a lot of efforts to make the little monsters suffer.

“ _Washed her mouth with a soap bar?_ ” he asked, half-disapproving and half-amused, as he had a pretty good idea who the little girl was.

The jounin merely nodded. “She kept on saying filthy things, so I thought I’d get rid of the problem from the source.”

Holding back an amused snort, Iruka stamped the jounin’s mission report with the “Approved” sing and put it on a neat pile beside him. As he did so, the jounin silently set down something beside his right hand.

“You forgot your umbrella at the restaurant when you left,” he muttered simply. For a moment, Iruka stared at him, not understanding exactly what it was about. Then he remembered. He remembered how he positively _ran away_ from the restaurant, leaving the poor Kakashi behind with his umbrella and - and the _bill_! Oh my...! How could he have forgotten about it? How could he have _done_ that!

“ _Oh_ , I’m sorry Kakashi-sensei!” he burst out rapidly, his cheeks burning with embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to leave you behind like that, how rude of me! I’m really sorry, I didn’t-!”

“Don’t worry about it, I understand,” the jounin said simply, still smiling. “Anyway, I’m the one at fault, since I was the one who dragged you there and that’s why you were late to start with.”

“ _Of course not!”_ The chuunin snapped, indignant. “You were nice enough to invite me and I _dumped_ you just like that-”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind-”

“I’m really sorry, I was in such a hurry, I totally forgot-”

“I told you already, I don’t mind,” Kakashi replied, but his voice was no longer casual and distant: he sounded serious.

“But!” Iruka gaped at him, trying to convince the jounin he was supposed to be angry with him. “I-I left you like that - with he bill and all!”

“The bill?” The Copy nin’s eye brows rose in the air; he seemed not to have given it a thought before.

“I really didn’t intend to leave like that - so rude of me, I can’t believe it! - here, I’ll pay my share-”

But as Iruka reached for his wallet, Kakashi grabbed his hand to stop him. Surprised, the chuunin looked up at the older nin, who seemed a bit hesitant. From close up, Iruka could see a bit of pink on the hedge of the man’s mask. Then, as casually as he could, the silver-haired man drew his hand back and Iruka stared, puzzled.

“Don’t, sensei. Let’s say,” there was another small hesitation, “you owe me a lunch, okay?”

Silence stretched between them. Iruka’s mind was oddly blank as he stared at the man in front of him, who was doing his best to look casually indifferent but, Iruka noticed absently, who also gave away small signs of nervousness. He couldn’t explain it, but Iruka was under the impression the Copy nin was waiting anxiously for a verdict to fall on him. Like he was asking him his permission... But his permission for what?

Then, as Iruka stared at the man, he understood what Kakashi was trying to ask. The silver-haired man wanted to know if it was still alright for him to seek his company now that they both knew he loved him. He was consciously and purposely allowing the brown-haired man to back down now if he wanted to. Iruka felt speechless. In front of him, the jounin seemed more and more nervous with every second that passed by and Iruka was almost surprised the man was not squirming yet.

Kakashi was letting him the choice... He couldn’t help but find it considerate of him. Very considerate.

“Yeah, okay,” the chuunin finally answered, smiling at the older man. At once, the Sharigan user’s face seemed to lighten up with a kind of childish joy and the brown-haired man couldn’t help thinking he was looking like a 5 year old who had been given a huge lollipop.

“Great,” the jounin said in what he surely hoped was a detached tone, trying to look nonchalant once again. “See you around then, sensei.”

The chuunin said good bye to the Copy nin, who walked away casually and left the mission room without looking back. Iruka smiled as he watched the man’s retreating back go away, wondering how the man truly felt right then. He guessed he probably wasn’t feeling uninterested at all.

Then Iruka’s smile slipped when he wondered if _he_ was feeling interested... Surely enough, he enjoyed the man’s presence, but that didn’t mean he was interested in him _that_ way. Normally, he would have probably felt uneasy, guilty or even scared by the prospect of meeting with Kakashi for a friendly meeting when they both knew he loved him in more than in a friendly way, but... he didn’t know why, but he somehow didn’t mind it that much. Because some small irrational part of himself was telling him that Kakashi understood. That he knew what the chuunin was able to give him at the moment and that he was fine with it.

Iruka just hoped he _knew_ what he was truly looking for...

Around him, people were gossiping like mad, but Iruka couldn’t care less.


	9. Chapter 9

It was a beautiful day for the small ninja village of Konoha; it was a hot, cloudless sunny day graced with a soft, pleasant breeze. The kind of day that inevitably urged children to misbehave. But Umino Iruka didn’t have to worry about those kind of things anymore, as the ninja academy little hellions were not his students anymore. Not ever since he had been slacked the previous day. And for the first time since then, he kinda felt glad for it.

The former academy teacher sighed as he stared at the clear azure sky, wondering how was his students’ first day with their new teacher. Somehow, Iruka doubted it was turning out well. Knowing them, the seven year olds were probably testing the substitute’s authority – which could be quite hazardous when the little monsters had sharp, pointy things within reach. Iruka snorted with amusement at the thought. Somehow, he wasn’t feeling that compassionate for his substitute. After all, chuunins were _supposed_ to be able to dodge kunais, weren’t they?

The brown-haired man hoped the man had not been stupid enough to tell the kids he had been fired and wouldn’t come back. He liked to think his ex-students were kinda fond of him - even though some of them had tried to kill him on several occasions - and he highly doubted they would greet the news well. Anyhow, it was only a matter of time before they heard about it from their parents; the rumor was probably already traveling through the village. Soon everybody would know. The chuunin was pretty sure that by the time he was forced to leave his house – for instance Friday evening for his mission room duties – every living soul in the village would be convinced he had been fired because he had been caught doing naughty things in his classroom with Kakashi-sensei or something equally ridiculous. Not that he cared – well, if parents thought he’d been indecent in front of their children, he did but... it didn’t matter much anymore, didn’t it?

Iruka mildly wondered what people would think about his dismissal. No doubts some with agree with the principal’s decision, some always did. But would the others realize how ridiculous this was? How positively _unfair_ it was? There were ought to, Iruka decided silently. Yes, of course, they would. Not that it would change anything, but still. And if people didn’t, then he still had Naruto – he was pretty sure the blond teen would positively have a fit when he’d learn he had been fired. That thought made his lips twitch up into a small smile.

His thoughts went once again to his ex-students, and the chuunin felt a bit bad about those essays he had asked them to write. Five hundred words was a lot for 7 year olds and the chuunin didn’t even know if his substitute would bother correcting them to start with. Because Iruka wouldn’t do it. After all, he was no longer a teacher and thus didn’t have to correct academy students’ work anymore. Moreover, it would make a real mess if he returned to the Academy to grab those – his ex-students would harass him to convince him to come back, his ex-colleagues would harass him to know why he had left and his substitute would harass him to know how to make the little hellions stop throwing sharp things at him every minute or so. _Nah_ , he didn’t fancy going back to the academy any time soon.

Snapping out of his reverie, Iruka’s attention went once again to the pile of paper he was trying to sort out. Those were job-related and Iruka had always kept them safely just in case, but he wouldn’t need them anymore, so he decided to sort them out and store them somewhere in the back of his wardrobe, where they most likely would be forgotten. It felt somewhat surrealist to be doing such a thing... But then, it had felt surrealist to sleep in on a Wednesday morning too. Because Iruka had decided to take things smoothly for a while; after all, he was in no hurry to find himself another job. So he decided to relax a bit – he even seriously considered taking a real vacation, like his students had suggested him. Going to the beach, maybe... Traveling would be nice. He had never seen the sea before, which was kind of ironic when one thought about his name. Yeah, leaving the village for one week or two might do him some good. And then when he’d come back, people might have lost all interest for him and his private life.

Yeah, right.

Taking a real vacation did sound like a good idea, though. But not now. He’d wait a few days to take the time to do some things he’d meant to do for a while, like sorting out his papers or buying himself new clothes – when he tried to find something casual to wear that morning, he had realized how urgent it was for him to go shopping. He had even planned to do nothing of his whole afternoon, sit on his couch and read a book. Then, tomorrow he’d bake a cheese cake – or at least he’d give it a try - and maybe some soup; Iruka’s soups were most of the time acceptable. And he’d invite Naruto over for dinner; he’s been wanting to do that for _ages_ , but his busy schedule almost never allowed him free time with his favourite ex-pupil. Iruka highly doubted his cake would have the same soft, creamy texture and the sweet taste of Kurenai-sensei’s cheesecakes – he had gotten the recipe from her months ago – but he was used to eating his own cooking. Anyway, Naruto wasn’t a difficult person, he had always eaten what Iruka had put on his plate without complains on the very few occasions the blond boy had eaten at his place. But then again, Iruka guessed that his cooking was probably delicious compared to Naruto’s, who had never truly bothered to learn how to cook something else than burned eggs and instant ramen. Maybe he was ought to invite Sakura and Sasuke too...? But then again, he doubted the other teenagers had the same immunity to his cooking.

His chain of thoughts was disturbed by a loud banging sound. Somebody was knocking at the door – or trying to knock the door down, by the sound of it. To avoid having to install new strap hinges, Iruka hurried to the entrance to open the door to a very flustered-looking team seven, closely followed by their infamous and famous silver-haired teacher. News sure traveled fast! He hadn’t been expecting them until the beginning of the afternoon.

“Iruka-sensei!” Naruto burst out at once when the man opened the door, not even leaving him the time to greet them, “Is it true you’ve been _fired_?”

The three teenagers gazed at him anxiously as if they half-expected him to reassure them, to tell them it was once again just a silly rumor and that they shouldn’t have bothered with it to start with. When he wouldn’t answer, Sakura and Naruto started talking very fast, looking agitated.

“We went to the academy but we couldn’t find you-”

“There were _everywhere_ , it was a real mess-” there was panic in the pink-haired kunoichi’s shrill voice.

“I swear those kids were trying to set the whole school on fire-”

“And then we went to the mission room-”

“They wouldn’t tell us-”

“You’re on a vacation leave, aren’t you?” Sakura’s voice had become aggressive. “ _Aren’t you_?”

She stared at him expectantly, almost threatening him to dare say the opposite, but he knew she was more scared than anything else he would confirm their worst fears. The two other teens were also starting hard at him, Naruto’s still boyish face twisted with a strange mix of anxiousness and anger while Sasuke’s face reminding the chuunin of some hardened criminal awaiting for his sentence to death.

Iruka couldn’t help it; he burst out laughing. He couldn’t help but laugh at the cuteness of their concern. To have them standing there, looking so worked up over something as stupid as this... It was an adorable sight, in some kind of twisted way. The teenagers stared at their laughing ex-teacher warily, seeming somewhat more concerned than before, and Iruka quickly sobered up.

“Don’t stay outside like that, come in,” he motioned the scared-looking teens inside his small apartment. “Let’s talk it over a cup of tea.”

They seemed to want to protest, but then they thought better of it and entered the apartment soberly, the crisped expression on their faces indicating they were prepared for the worst. If they hadn’t been obviously feeling so worried for him, Iruka would have found the whole situation highly amusing, he decided with a small smile.

From behind the teens, the silver-haired jounin approached Iruka, looking mildly uneasy. “Sorry to disturb you sensei, but when they heard about the rumor...”

“Yeah, I can imagine,” the chuunin said with an amused smirk, pretty sure the jounin was just as worried and curious as them. The man seemed to understand Iruka’s light sarcasm because he looked away, scratching the back of his neck with his gloved hand to hide his embarrassment. But maybe he was just feeling shy about entering Iruka’s apartment for the first time, Iruka resoned out – after all, one’s home was something a bit intimate. At that thought, Iruka felt his own cheeks heathen up a bit.

“Come in; let’s not make them wait,” he said quietly, motioning the older man in. Kakashi seemed a bit hesitant but he entered nonetheless and Iruka followed him, closing the door behind them.

Iruka motioned the silent group to his small kitchen table – he had to fetch more chairs to have enough for all of them – and went to the nearby kitchen to prepare tea. As he was doing so, a gloomy silence reigned over the whole apartment, his visitor apparently not feeling up to small talk. Iruka couldn’t help thinking they seemed to be preparing themselves to attend to his funeral or something equally dramatic and that thought made him smile fondly again, because at that precise moment, it seemed to the ex-academy teacher that he was standing in front of the pre-genin Team seven he used to teach once again and not in front of three nearly adult chuunins. Their overreaction reminded him that Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura might not look and act like children anymore, but they weren’t quite adults yet, something he tended to forget sometimes.

After a few minutes, Iruka came out of the kitchen with five cup of tea. When the chuunin set down Naruto’s tea cup in front of him, the blond young man burst out; it was obvious he had done great efforts to refrain from asking the question that was on his mind but couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“What happened? Did they really fire you?!” the blonde asked hastily, leaning over the table with anticipation. The other nins were staring intensely at Iruka, obviously feeling as eager as Naruto to know the truth. And Iruka smiled at them, feeling calmer than he had thought he would be for announcing them such a thing.

“Why, yes,” the chuunin answered serenely and the teens gaped at him, horror-struck; obviously, they had not expected him to answer that – or perhaps to say it so frankly. On the other hand, their jounin teacher didn,t seem shocked at all by the news; he remained expressionless, staring at his host with unreadable eyes.

“But they _can’t_!” Naruto bellowed indignantly, slamming his fist powerfully on the table, successfully spilling most of his boiling tea on it – but he was too angry to even notice.

“Of course they can, idiot,” Sasuke replied almost automatically, but he looked as indignant as his team mate.

“I can’t believe it! It’s got to be a mistake!”

“Now, now, calm down,” Iruka said peacefully. “It’s not like it’s the end of the world. It’s just a job, afterall. There are things more important than this.” Naruto stared at him like he had grown a second head.

“But you _loved_ that job! Hell, you were probably the only guy in the whole village crazy enough to actually like taking care of those brats! They can’t fire you just like that!”

“You’re the best teacher the academy has,” Sasuke pointed out coolly, and Iruka felt somewhat pleased to hear the normally distant young man praising him like that.

“Yeah!” Naruto insisted loudly, “You’re the best and they know it! How could they possibly fire you, it’s grotesque!”

“Thank you guys, but the Principal probably had his reasons. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I’ll find myself another job soon, so-”

“Sensei,” Sakura asked him slowly, carefully choosing her words, “Do you know _why_ they fired you...?”

For a second, Iruka remained silent. Should he tell them the truth? Previously, he had selfishly longed for Naruto’s indignation, but now that the young man was standing in front of him, his bright blue eyes clouded by worry, he didn’t know anymore if he wanted him to know the frustrating truth behind his dismissal. Around him, Sasuke and Sakura were also staring at him intensely, as concerned as the blond teen, and somehow Iruka realized he didn’t want to upset them too much. Because he was pretty sure they’d go ballistic if he told them what he’d been told by the Principal. Some part of himself didn’t want that; some part of himself wanted them to believe it was a mistake, or that he was on vacation leave.

But then his eyes went to Kakashi. The silver-haired man was watching him quietly, his single gray eye filled with a strange mixture of seriousness and concern. The brown-haired man didn’t want him to worry, didn’t want him to know. Especially since it concerned him. But somehow, he suddenly didn’t have the heart to lie to him. Or to his ex-pupils, as a matter of fact. It would be wrong. Because he knew they truly cared for him, cared about what was happening to him. That thought made him feel oddly warm in the inside and he felt guilty for even thinking about hiding the truth to them.

They at least deserved to know what was going on.

The chuunin gave them a small, calm smile. “Parents requested my suspension after they heard about the rumor that I fancied Kakashi-sensei,” he said simply. “They seem to fear I’d be a bad influence for their children.”

“ **WHAT!** ” Team seven roared, their faces suddenly twisted with bewilderment and anger. Well, _Sakura and Naruto_ roared. The raven-haired young man of course did not scream; it was not his way of doing things. His anger flared in his eyes instead, his handsome features twisting in an ugly way with disgust and hatred at the chuunin’s words. Iruka didn’t give them much thoughts though, because he was looking at the silver-haired jounin instead.

Iruka had imagined that the Copy nin would look embarrassed at the mention of the rumor or look indignant, like his students. But instead of that, the silver-haired man remained absolutely still on his seat. The only thing attesting of his shock was his uncovered eye, which was suddenly filled with icing-cold anger. Iruka suppressed a shudder at the sight of that cold, merciless eye and was quite thankful he was not the one who had provoked his wrath.

“How _could_ they!”

“That’s ridiculous! They can’t fire you for _that_!”

“ _Those f--n’ jerks can go screw themselves!_ ”

“That’s _unfair_!”

“They can’t do that, I’m sure there’s some law about satisfactory reasons to fire teachers,” the raven-haired teen said, looking downright determined to prove her ex-teacher still had chances to return to the academy.

“Sasuke-kun is right! That’s got to be against the law!”

“You’re going to fight them, won’t you?” Naruto asked aggressively.

“No, I don’t think so, Naruto,” Iruka answered him honestly.

“But-!” The three teens shot him incredulous looks, looking taken aback once again.

“It’s not worth it. You know,” Iruka took a big breath, anticipating the following outburst, “the Principal actually gave me the choice. I could have stayed - the only thing I had to do was to find myself a girlfriend or a wife.”

The chuunin decided to leave out the part about Kakashi-sensei; it was already bad enough like that, they didn’t need to know that as well. Plus, he didn’t want to sound like he had chosen the jounin instead of the academy; the mere thought of it embarrassed him. At his words, Team seven looked so downright indignant they seemed to be about to bite.

“They wanted you to get a _wife?_ ” Sasuke hissed, his teeth clenched.

“How **dared** they!”

“Iruka-sensei, you can’t possibly let them do that to you!” Sakura pleaded, he voice shaking with frustration.

“We’re gonna help you, we’ll defend you-”

“There’s gotta be a way-”

“You mustn’t give up!”

“Listen,” Iruka spoke up louder, eyeing his ex-students seriously. “That day, I decided I wouldn’t let anyone choose what was good for me and I assume that decision fully. So even if they sack me, I don’t care; I won’t change my mind about it. And you’ve got to respect that decision, even if you don’t agree with it.”

Iruka had expected them to be comprehensive, but he had not expected them to look annoyed at him like that.

“Iruka-sensei, this isn’t about pride!” Sakura said, looking exasperated. “This is about your job!”

“My point exactly; it’s about my _job_. It’s just a job afterall, there’s no need to make such a fuss about it. I’m pretty sure I’ll find myself a new one soon, so there’s no need to worry about it.”

Although these words seemed to have calmed down a bit the three teens, Team 7 continued to protest and show their support to the brown-haired man for another good 20 minutes - ‘they cannot do that!’-‘They’ll miss you soon!’-‘Heartless bastards’-‘They shouldn’t have kids to start with!’ Irula listened to them faithfully, a small grateful smile on his lips. All the while, Hatake Kakashi remained silent, looking down at his tea cup. There was nothing contemplative about his look though - there was only cold determination in his eye.

Somehow, Iruka started to fear for the Principal’s life.

When the brown-haired man finally managed to kick them out half an hour later with great difficulty, Kakashi stayed behind just a little while as his students walked away, faking sudden interest for Iruka’s plants. When the teens were out of hearing range, the silver-haired man looked up at him with disturbing seriousness and Iruka felt suddenly a bit uneasy under the man’s intense gaze.

“I’m sorry to see Konoha’s elite cannot tell apart their good people anymore. They’ve lost the best academy teacher they had and they don’t even realize it,” the jounin said quietly, his piercing gray eye still locked on Iruka’s brown ones. “They’ll probably regret it soon enough.”

Iruka felt his cheeks blush from the open compliment, but he didn’t look away. Something about what the jounin had just said was troubling him somehow. As he stared back at the Copy nin, he couldn’t help thinking there was an unvoiced idea behing those words and it worried him.

“I’m touched by your concern,” he answered silently, “but I can watch over myself, Kakashi-sensei.”

The jounin seemed to understand what Iruka had meant to say, but he didn’t seem to agree at all with the ex-teacher’s point of view. He frowned, looking about to say something, but in the end decided against it and turned around, leaving the chuunin’s house silently. Iruka watched him walking away, feeling strangely worried. He hoped the man wouldn’t do something stupid... Slowly closing the door down, Iruka mused about the Sharigan user’s reaction and highly doubted the man would wisely return home after what he’d heard. Hell, he would be damned if him and Naruto weren’t heading straight to the Hokage’s office to complain loudly about his dismissal and request the Principal to be fired for what he’d done... Or worse. The chuunin sighed in defeat at that thought. He really hoped Team 7 and their sensei wouldn’t put themselves into trouble for him, but he was too realist to actually believe it.

Trying to chase away his worries, the brown-haired chuunin went back to sorting out his job-related documents, wondering what he’d cook for dinner...

Iruka then inwardly swore. With all that agitation, he had completely forgotten to invite Team seven for dinner.

\--

The chuunin spent the rest of the day sorting out documents and cleaning his small apartment. Toward the end of the afternoon, when he finally finished doing his chores, he sat down on the couch and watched an old movie, relaxing a bit for the first time in a while. But even as he watched the movie, the brown-haired man couldn’t help but think about the three teenagers and their jounin teacher.

When he went to bed that night, Umino Iruka tried not to worry too much about Kakashi-sensei, Team 7, the rumors and everything happening outside his apartment walls. Afterall, he tried to remind himself, he had no control over those things. It was not like he could make people stop talking about him or even refrain Naruto from giving the Hokage a piece of his mind - and more importantly, Kakashi-sensei from doing something even more stupid. There was nothing he could do about it, if not hope that everything would turn out well in the end and that nobody would get hurt on the way.

Before falling asleep, he remembered Team seven’s indignant outbursts fondly, feeling a sudden rush of affection for the teens. He would invite them over for dinner, he promised himself sleepily. Yes, he would bake them a cheesecake...

The next thing he knew, there was a loud banging sound. Waking up with a start, Iruka rapidly scanned the room for possible threats but found none. The banging sound could be heard again coming from the entrance, a little bolder than before. Iruka winced at the sound, rubbing his eyes with his hands tiredly. What time was it? He sleepily eyed his alarm clock with half-closed eyelids; it indicated 11:39 p.m. Closing his eyes again, Iruka growled. Who the hell could possibly want to see him at such a late hour? Whoever it was, he hoped with growing annoyance they had a pretty good reason to be hammering on his front door like that in the middle of the night...!

The visitor knocked again. Feeling frustration building inside of him, the chuunin sleepily got up and went to the front door. If it was Naruto, he swore he’d make him regret to be born, that little...!

Snapping the door open with frustration, Iruka was bewildered to find himself face to face with a pretty blond woman.

“H-Hokage-sama?” he asked with a white voice, his annoyance suddenly forgotten.

“Good evening, Iruka-kun,” the fat-breasted woman greeted him, a tired smile on her lips. Some part of his mind - probably the awake one - reminded Iruka that at such hour, “good night” was more appropriate than “good evening”, but he didn’t voice it out. He simply stared at the Godaime, his still sleepy brain trying to figure out what the Hokage could possibly do in front of his door at 11:39 p.m.

“Good... evening,” he greeted her hesitantly. The woman smiled, but said nothing; she just stood there in front of him silently, as if it was quite normal to wake up people at 11:39 p.m. just to say hi. Obviously, she didn’t seem to feel the need to explain why she was there and somehow, the sleepy and still bewildered chuunin really couldn’t see what she wanted with him to start with. When the silence stretched on and it became obvious the woman wouldn’t speak up, Iruka decided to take matters into his own hands.

Errr,” the chuunin hesitated, not knowing exactly how to phrase his question politely, “I don’t want to be rude, but what brings you here at such a late hour, Hokage-sama?”

“Iruka,” the blond woman said on an almost detached tone, “when you have guests, you shouldn’t let them rot on your porch like that. It’s not polite.”

Iruka blinked at her, dumbfounded. Then he caught on to was she was saying and felt stupid, a blush creeping to his tanned cheeks. “Oh! I’m sorry-”

The chuunin backed down to let the old woman enter and the Godaime walked pass him and casually made her way in his small apartment as if she owned the place, to Iruka’s consternation. Closing the door silently behind him, Iruka followed his visitor into the living room, feeling oddly helpless as he stared at the blonde woman making herself comfortable on his couch. The whole situation felt surreal; the Godaime herself was in _his living room_! Sitting on his couch! Iruka almost wished he was still in his bed and that all of this was only a very, very strange dream, but he knew it couldn’t be. His dream usually weren’t so weird.

From the living room doorway, he watched the Hokage stretching her long legs comfortably, totally making herself home. She didn’t even seem to realize how strange the whole situation was, to Iruka’s utter bemusement. Looking up at the stunned chuunin, she eyed him expectantly.

“So? Will you offer me something to drink?”

“Oh! Yes, of course,” the chuunin mumbled stupidly and went to the kitchen, hastily preparing two cups of tea. As he was waiting for the water to boil, he thought. Feeling a little more awake than he had been when he had greeted the Godaime, Iruka seriously thought about the reason behind the Hokage’s uncommon presence – because the woman obviously wasn’t there only to enjoy a cup of tea with him. Could this late visit be linked to his dismissal? Probably. Or more precisely, it was probably due to Team seven, he deduced, suddenly feeling worried. What if Naruto had done something stupid? What if _Kakashi-sensei_ had and done something stupid...? At that thought, Iruka felt his throat tighten painfully and he tried to chase away that idea. They knew better, he tried to convince himself... Or at least, they knew better than to get caught. The chuunin prepared their tea silently and headed for the living room, suddenly feeling more anxious than bewildered by the woman’s unbelievable presence.

As he settled down the Godaime’s steaming cup in front of her, the woman grimaced a bit. “Don’t you have something a bit stronger for me, Iruka?”

“I’m sorry Hokage-sama, but I don’t have alcohol at home,” the brown-haired man answered politely as he sat down next to her, guessing it was alright for him to make himself comfortable as well - he _was_ at home, afterall.

“Oh, well. Too bad,” the blond woman sighed a bit sadly, sipping slowly her steaming tea. For a long moment, the Hokage remained silent, taking occasional sips of the drink Iruka had served her. The silence stretched slowly and Iruka felt more and more anxious about what she would announce him. As the ex-academy teacher was about to ask her again what she wanted with him, the woman finally spoke up.

“I’ve had a bad day today,” she said on an dispassionate tone, watching the moon through the living room window. Iruka stared at her, astounded. Surely enough she had not come here to tell him that?! Or if she had, then she wasn’t in her right mind... suddenly feeling a bit wary, the chuunin waited for her to speak up again.

“Do you know why I had a bad day, Iruka?” she asked on the same serene tone. Iruka shook his head, now feeling worried.

“Because I kept on being harassed by all sort of people,” she said calmly, sipping her tea slowly. “Parents, academy teachers, ex-students, mission room staff, random nins - and even a bunch seven year old brats showed up at my office, d’you imagine. All talking at the same time - it was a real mess, I”m telling you. Something about you being fired,” she said casually, sipping her tea slowly. Iruka’s eyebrows raised with surprise and he gaped at her, not believing his ears. But when the blonde woman’s words truly sank in, the chuunin felt a wave of warmth overwhelming him. To think that people actually forced their way into the Hokage’s office to protest about his sacking was... amazing. The chuunin could hardly believe it. Of course, he had known some people would not agree with the Principal’s decision, but he had never imagined that those people would actually _fight_ for him! Somehow, that thought truly moved him, even though it embarrassed him a bit. To make such a fuss about him... It was truly extraordinary.

“There was such an uproar,” the Hokage continued casually, “you should have seen it. People were out of themselves - I must admit that at some point I feared for my safety. Especially when Kakashi showed up; I had never seen him so angry before. It was quite a scary sight... He seems to be quite fond of you, the Hatake brat,” she commented with an amused smirk, winking at the gaping chuunin and Iruka, feeling himself flushing, hastilly looked away. Somehow, he was not feeling at ease to talk about his love life with the Hokage, especially since the old woman was way too enthusiast at the prospect of the two men dating. To distract himself, he took a sip at his own tea, feeling Tsunade’s knowing eyes resting on him. Great, now the Hokage thought they were in love... He sincerely hoped she wouldn’t start giving him advices about how to make the jounin fall for him or - he blanched at the mere thought - how to turn him on, because he didn’t know if he’d be able to survive the humiliation.

“But he was not the only one,” she said softly, and Iruka saw her suggestive grin turn into a soft, almost proud smile and felt relieved they were on safer waters. “You know, there are a lot of people who deeply care about you, Iruka-kun.”

The chuunin nodded with a small hesitant smile, still feeling astounded by the news. He could hardly believe all those people had fought for him to start with. He had known Team seven and Kakashi-sensei were ought to pay a visit to the Hokage, but he had never imagined in his wildest dreams his dismissal would cause such a strong reaction. Like Tsunade-sama just said, it showed that even thought most of the village liked to speculate about his private life, he was still appreciated as a person. That thought left him with a pleasant warm feeling.

“I was surprised when I heard the news,” the Godaime spoke up after a while, her smile vanishing from her young features. “Very surprised, indeed. But I guess the right word would be indignant, since I hadn’t even been consulted before your dismissal.”

“I didn’t know the Hokage was to be consulted when it came to hiring or firing academy teachers,” Iruka said with mild surprise.

“ _Officially_ , the Principal doesn’t need my approval, but the Council’s,” she explained lightly, “but officiously, it’s quite another thing. When it comes down to t his, it’s a matter of politic and influence... Dokyugo knew it perfectly well.”

The was a long pause and the chuunin remained silent, thinking over what the woman had said. After a while, he wondered if he was supposed to say something. But obviously he was not, as the blond woman soon started to talk again.

“When I finally managed to get out of my office - and convinced Naruto and Kakashi I didn’t need their help persuading a few people - I dropped by the Principal’s place to have a little chat with him. I also paid a visit to a few Council members and parents on my way here.”

By the ironic tone of her voice, Iruka had a fairly good idea what kind of discussion it had been. Oh yes, the woman had been angry. Downright pissed, even. The brown-haired man winced at the thought of an angered Tsunade, who had just been explained by the Principal why he had been sacked, _‘visiting’_ the heads of the most famous clans of the village... He was quite glad he hadn’t been there to see it. Quite glad. To think this was all because him, some average chuunin...! It seemed almost impossible. There was another short silence.

“Now, I would understand if you wouldn’t want to teach again at the academy after what happened yesterday,” the Godaime said quietly as she swallowed the rest of her tea. “But if you still feel up to it, I want you to know you can have your post back.”

Iruka stared at her, almost not daring to believe it. But when she didn’t add anything, he realized she had been sincere about it and beamed at her, not believing his luck. He would be able to return to the Academy! He would see those little hellions again, correct homework and give away detentions again...!

The sennin smiled back at him, “I take it we can count on you tomorrow morning?”

The chuunin was about to nod, but then he thought better of it. He could do with a couple more day at home... Afterall, he wasn’t quite sure his students had missed him enough yet...

“Actually, I was wondering if I could take a few days before returning... let’s say, Monday?” he asked tentatively, hoping he wasn’t stretching his luck too much.

“Sure, have a break,” Tsunade smirked, obviously amused. Then she sat up. “Well, it’s been a long day and I think I’ll call it a night. Or maybe I’ll go grab something at the local bar...” she said thoughtfully as she walked toward the door, the chuunin following her, his heart suddenly very light.

When they reached the door, Tsunade turned around and smiled at him. “Well then! Good night, sensei.”

“Good night to you too, Hokage-sama. And... thank you for everything.”

The woman smiled fondly at him, as they both knew he truly meant it from the bottom of his heart.

“Say hi to Kakashi for me,” she said playfully, winking once again at him before opening the door and walking silently into the cool night. But even her suggestive comment couldn’t affect Iruka right then. Because he knew he would return to the academy. He would spend this Sunday afternoon preparing lessons again. He would correct homework and exams again. He would scold his little hellions when they tried to skip class again... He was in such a good mood he felt nothing mattered anymore.

Not even the fact that he had spent the whole morning sorting out work-related papers for nothing.

* * *


	10. Chapter 10

It was Saturday afternoon. Sprawled comfortably on his couch, Umino Iruka was reading a book, a vague smile on his lips. It had been a while since the last time he had felt this relaxed... Indeed, his few days of vacation had done him much good, he mused with a smile. And after all what he’d gone through in the past weeks with those gossips running around the town, he deserved at least that much. Oh yes, he definitely did.

Iruka sighed heavily as he remembered he would have to go back to work again on Monday morning, feeling a bit depressed by the thought. For some reason, he felt reluctant to face his responsibilities again now that he was enjoying so much having free time and some part of him even wished he could never go back to his tiring routine. But he knew this wonderful quietness unfortunately couldn’t last - he couldn’t stay home like this forever, he had to make a living afterall. Which meant going back to his stressful and demanding job at the academy... But it was not the end of the world; the chuunin knew that when he would see his students’ little faces, his reluctance would disappear and he would find back his usual enthusiasm and devotion; that was just the way he was.

The brown-haired man frowned at the thought of his return to the academy, wondering how people would react. Surely enough, children would be thrilled to see him again; if Team seven and the Hokage were to be trusted, they had missed him quite a lot, he thought warmly. But then again, he would have no problem to deal with his students’ excitement and questions; he was more preoccupied with everybody else’s attitude - that is to say, the other academy teachers and the parents’...

The chuunin wondered with mild apprehension how _they_ would react when he returned to the academy. The Hokage had said that some of his coworkers and a few parents had fought against his sacking, so he knew that he was not _entirely_ unwanted at the academy. But surely enough, some of them probably didn’t see under such a good light Iruka’s return as well. Especially the Principal and the parents who had received the Hokage’s visit – the chuunin could only imagine how cold and distant they were going to be toward him after what had happened... At least, that’s how he had first thought they would react, but the academy teacher had to admit that to the light of the recent events, he didn’t know what to expect anymore.

When he had gone to the mission room on Friday evening for his usual mission room duty, Iruka had expected the mission room to be crowded with curious people gossiping between one another about his dismissal and his quick return. He had even expected people to ask him questions; in such a situation, it was hardly avoidable – everybody would want to know what had happened. Or at least, that’s what he thought. But that evening when he entered the mission room, he was stunned to find it surprisingly empty. Still stranger, the few people in the room weren’t even talking about him! They still watched him curiously though – but much more subtly than before, Iruka had to concede. Which puzzled the brown-haired man, to say the least. But things got even weirder as the day went by; when he walked back home through the village’s busy streets that evening, Iruka noticed with surprise that people had stopped whispering together at the sight of him when he walked down the streets as well. Instead of gossiping like mad at his sight like they used to do only a few days ago, they subtly followed him with their eyes and looked away when he gazed in their direction, obviously trying not to get caught staring at him. Not that they actually managed to; Umino Iruka was a trained chuunin, even if people seemed to forget about it.

The brown-haired man had been surprised and unsettled by this unexpected turn out, to say the least. He guessed the Hokage must have talked to more people than she pretended to... Yes, it was probably what had happened. But Iruka knew better than to imagine people’s sudden respect for him and his private life would last long – no doubts that in no less than a week, the whole village would drop its act altogether and everybody would start to openly discuss him private life again just like before. Not that Iruka actually believed that the Godaime’s warnings – or, knowing the said woman, threats – had been enough to convince people to actually stop discussing his private life out of his hearing range anyway. Iruka had no illusions; people probably started whispering like mad at the precise moment he was out of sight. Because _nothing_ could possibly affect the Konoha gossip channels, not even the fury and the ‘politics’ of the Hokage herself. People were only trying to hide their interest for him for a while, that was all. But still, it was very nice of the blonde woman to have gone through the trouble of convincing people to be more subtle about their obsession with his private life, Iruka thought with a small smile. The chuunin really appreciated the fact that he was not assaulted with questions – it made his life much easier. He would have to remember to thank the Godaime for her unexpected tactfulness... Because let’s say it, tact was _not_ the Godaime’s strong point.

The chuunin wondered if his students’ parents and his colleagues at the academy would act as if nothing had happened as well. Undoubtedly, Iruka would prefer it that way; he’d be glad if he could avoid going over his sacking with his curious coworkers and with some clingy parents. He could just imagine Mrs. Kadokawa, the good-hearted mother of a small red-haired girl in his class, ranting over why she was so glad that he was back: she couldn’t quite believe at first he had been fired, he was such a good teacher, always nice with her little Juuri and all, he helped her with her jutsu like no other teacher had before, oh, there was no need to be that humble – but she’d never liked the principal before, oh no, he was such a snob man, she hoped that he would get fired for lacking so much judgement and dismissing such an efficient and fine young man like him...! And it would go on and on. And if Mrs. Saikyu was to join her, the chuunin knew it would get even worse. Just thinking about it, his head was aching already... No, he’d be happy to avoid all that fuss if he could, but he knew better than to have his hopes up.

Iruka’s chain of thoughts was suddenly broken by the sound of someone knocking on his front door. Getting up, the academy teacher walked to the entrance to answer, wondering who could be visiting him; he wasn’t expecting anyone’s visit and Naruto generally didn’t even bother to wait for him to open up before entering. Opening the door, Iruka was surprised to find out that his porch was surprisingly visitor-free. Looking around, he saw nobody standing in the deserted street and frowned. Could it be a mistake? Or maybe it was a prank of one of his students... But somehow, the chuunin was under the impression that his students, for once, had nothing to do with this suspicious anonymous visit.

Shrugging it off, he closed the door and returned to his book, telling himself that he’d find out what it was about sooner or later. And sure enough, about fifteen minutes later, the knocking sound reached his ears again. Walking up to the entrance, Iruka opened the door and it wasn’t a surprise for him when it revealed no other than Hatake Kakashi, who was looking as relaxed and nonchalant as ever on the chuunin’s porch. But on a closer look, the faint blush appearing at the top of his mask gave away the man’s obvious nervousness to be there, a thing Umino Iruka did not miss to notice.

“Ah, Iruka-sensei...” the jounin greeted with obviously fake boredom. “I hope I’m not bothering you?”

“No, of course not; I was reading a book,” Iruka assured him hastily, feeling a bit nervous as well to face the Copy nin again. The last time that he had seen him, they had both stood over his threshold in a very different situation, he remembered mildly; the silver-haired man and him had had a light, unvoiced disagreement about what was to be done about his dismissal. Iruka wondered with curiosity and mild anxiety why the jounin had come to see him this time... But somehow, his presence was not making him feel as anxious as it should have, for some reason.

“Ah, good,” the jounin answered and there was a short silence between the two men, the ex-anbu suddenly seeming hesitant about something. “Er, sensei, I...”

“Yes?”

“I don’t want to be rude or anything, but... I was passing by and I was hungry and I wondered – that is to say, if you feel up to it – we could go to the restaurant – to claim back the lunch you owe me, so we’d be even.” The silver-haired man had blurted out the last sentence in one shot, without even taking a breath. Then, he stared at the chuunin a bit nervously, like a dog who wasn’t sure if he was going to get reprimanded or not for pissing on the carpet, foolishly hoping his mischief would go unnoticed if he didn’t look too suspicious about it.

Iruka blinked at the Sharigan user, not understanding what the nervous-looking jounin was talking about at first. But then, he remembered their previous lunch at the Yakitori stand and a fond smile found a way to his lips. For some reason, Iruka was feeling amused by the man’s cute excuse to spend time with him, even though the prospect of that meeting was making him nervous. He had not missed to notice the way his small meetings with Kakashi-sensei were starting to look more and more like dating and he didn’t quite know what to think about it – although he had to admit that he truly had good time when he was with the silver-haired man, it still made him a bit uneasy to be around him.

“It’s not rude at all; I do owe you a lunch afterall,” Iruka reassured the jounin with a smile, “Just let me grab my coat and I’m coming.”

“Sure,” the silver-haired man sighed, looking a bit relieved and as he went back inside his apartment to get his coat, Iruka couldn’t help but wonder if the jounin had honestly expected him to turn him down or something. He was not that rude!

Locking his door behind him, Iruka turned around and smiled at the older man. “So. Where are we eating?”

“Feeling up for tempura?’ Kakashi asked on a more relaxed tone and the chuunin smile’s widened.

“Sure. I haven’t had any in months,” he admitted a bit sheepishly and the jounin’s eye curved up happily.

“Tempura it’ll be, then.”

The two teachers started walking together through Konoha streets, Kakashi leading the way to what he assured the chuunin was the best tempura in town and the academy teacher gladly followed him, since he himself had a very poor knowledge of the village’s good restaurants. On their way, their discussion remained light and easy, although Iruka soon started to feel quite uneasy with the attention they were gathering just by walking side by side and talking together; it seemed as if wherever they went, everybody was staring hungrily at them. Oh, they made sure the two men didn’t see them stare openly, but Iruka could just feel their gaze on him at the moment he looked away - and surely enough they weren’t fooling the jounin either.

For some reason, all that attention made the chuunin a bit uneasy. Not that he wasn’t used to that kind of attention; he’d had people staring at him like this for over two weeks now and he had stopped to care about it long ago. But now that the Copy nin was standing by his side, Iruka could not help but think that it made things different; it was practically as if Iruka was _giving_ them more gossip material to talk about. He knew it was stupid of him to think that way, but he couldn’t help it. Of course, he knew pretty well that the gossip channel was bound to go wild again about it - surely enough, some would start saying that Kakashi and him were going out together now that they’ve been seen so many times eating out together...

Oh, and why did he even care?! They could think he was going out with half of the jounins in town if they wanted! After what he had gone through, he was not going to start to care again about what the village thought of his private life. Certainly not. Especially now that he knew that those rumors didn’t change the fact that he was appreciated nonetheless through the village as an academy teacher, like the recent events had allowed him to discover.

On the other hand, if being observed by all those strangers made Hatake Kakashi uneasy, he didn’t show it at all; the jounin kept on walking as if he wasn’t even noticing people were staring, and Iruka could only guess he was used to such treatment, being the famous nin he was. It reassured the chuunin a bit that Kakashi didn’t care as well and they kept on walking and chatting sociably, ignoring the curious glances people were sending them.

To the academy teacher’s surprise, Kakashi led them to a small and rather gloomy-looking building – quite different from the friendly yakitori bar they had eaten at the week before. When they entered it, Iruka had the distinct impression this was the kind of obscure place where people who didn’t want to be found or recognized hid themselves; the mostly deserted restaurant was filthy-looking and badly-lit, the only light being the one coming from the few dusty windows of the building. There was only one waitress, a heavily scarred woman in her mid thirties standing behind a deserted wooden bar/kitchen, washing dishes in silence. In one corner of the room could be seen the only customer of the place, a tall man covered with black clothes half-hidden by the shadows.

Quite gloomy, indeed. Not the kind of place you usually took people to for a date. Which was a good thing... in a twisted kind of way, Iruka mused. But at least, they were sure to have some privacy there.

The two men sat down at a small square table nearby the bar and far from the passer-by’s curious glances, to the chuunin’s relief. The silent waitress almost at once took their order – Kakashi recommended the house’s speciality, the seafood tempura and Iruka imitated him. Then, the waitress went away with their orders and started to cook their food right in front of their eyes at the nearby bar/kitchen – Iruka guessed that in this kind of establishment, it was a given that the food was to be made right under the customers’ suspicious eyes. They watched her for a short while and then started talking about the book Iruka was currently reading, an epic story the jounin said to have been wanting to read for quite some time. Their conversation quickly drifted to literature, a subject they were both fond of, and they talked passionately about books they had both liked and their respective favorite authors.

They were so caught up in their discussion that it was a surprise for Iruka when the scarred waitress came back with their food; he was sure she had left just moments ago! What a quick service! But that was to be expected; the place was nearly empty afterall...

It was only then that the chuunin realized with a start that while he was talking passionately with the ex-anbu, he had somehow missed to notice how the tiny and dirty-looking restaurant had unexpectedly filled up with people. The whole room was suddenly overcrowded with people of all kinds, dozen of people ridiculously massing themselves around its small square tables and by the stunned look on the overworked waitress’ face, such a thing was not exactly a common occurrence. Which didn’t surprise the chuunin much, since he was quite sure all those people hadn’t showed up to taste the place’s famous tempura...

Damn those gossipers. They were chatting discreetly among each other, as if just enjoying a meal with friends, but Iruka wasn’t fooled – all their attention was directed toward them. For some reason, their sight caused some anger to stirr in Iruka’s gusts. Couldn’t they just leave them alone for once? Why did they have to follow them even _there_?! Didn’t they have respect for anything?

Fighting back the annoyance and the uneasiness he felt at the sight of all those people, Iruka inwardly cursed himself for having been so oblivious to the presence of so many villagers. He couldn’t quite believe he hadn’t noticed all those people before now... What a pitiful ninja he made, really! It was truly shameful! Being so caught up in a discussion that he didn’t notice something like _forty_ people coming in such a tiny restaurant... Really, Iruka didn’t understand at all how he could have missed something so obvious...! He usually wasn’t so oblivious of his surroundings like that; on the opposite, he was usually more aware of his surroundings than your average chuunin due to his long experience teaching to pre-genins – which was actually quite a hazardous profession, even if people didn’t realize it. But then, why had he missed to notice -forty- damn gossipers entering the minuscule restaurant?!

Now that the brown-haired man thought about it, this is _exactly_ what had happened at the Yakitori bar too. Kakashi and him had talked for so long that he had arrived late to his class... Twenty minutes late, in fact. And if it had not been for the silver-haired man, Iruka wouldn’t even have noticed he was late to start with, him who was always so aware of the time passing by!

As he started to eat, the academy teacher mused about that strange effect the silver-haired jounin seemed to have on him; whenever he was with Hatake Kakashi, he seemed to loose notion of time - or of everything else happening around him, for a fact. Which was not like him at all, he thought with a slight frown. He wondered what that meant... Looking at the said man, Iruka noticed the jounin was staring at him with his uncovered eye curved up, his navy blue mask covering his smiling face as usual. But unsurprisingly, the silver-haired man’s serving of tempura seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Once again, the chuunin frowned.

“You shouldn’t do that,” he scolded the silver-haired man, who raised his eyebrow in surprise.

“Do what?”

“Eating so fast.” At those words, the surprised look on the jounin’s face turned into one of mild amusement and he chuckled softly.

“Glad to see you care, sensei.”

The chuunin rolled his eyes with mild amusement at the older man’s teasings. “No, seriously, it _is_ bad for your stomach. And what’s the point of eating out if you don’t even take the time to appreciate the food you’re eating? Isn’t that a waste of money?”

“Good point. In fact, that’s exactly why I eat in small, discreet places like this where people leave me eat alone and don’t always try to steal a glance at my face when they think I’m not looking,” Kakashi explained simply, his uncovered eye smiling.

“I wouldn’t glance at your face if that’s what bothering you,” the chuunin said playfully to the Sharigan user, a smirk on his lips, and the man’s eye glittered with the same playfulness.

“I’m sure you wouldn’t, but I doubt _they_ would show as much discretion and sensibility as you, sensei.”

No need to specify who he was talking about, Iruka thought sarcastically as he eyed the crowd of curious people surrounding them. Of course, discretion and sensibility could not be said to be _the whole village’s_ strong point recently... Looking back at Kakashi, the chuunin noticed that the silver-haired man was looking a bit bitter at that thought. Their eyes met and the ex-anbu’s expression softened a bit.

“I guess I underestimated how interesting we were,” he finally explained, looking more sorry than anything else. For some reason, Iruka felt a wave of pity and affection for the man, who had obviously hoped against all odds that the small, gloomy restaurant would assure them some privacy.

“The great Copy nin Hatake Kakashi, being _wrong_?” Iruka teased him on a mock-surprised tone to lighten the mood and to his surprise, the jounin burst out laughing. He laughed with that same rich, intoxicating laugh Iruka had heard at the Yakitori bar and at the sound of his frank and cheerful laugh, the brown-haired man felt his heart beat faster in his ribcage for some reason.

“If only...!” Kakashi answered warmly, his uncovered eye glittering with amusement and somehow, Iruka could not help but smile back at him. An easy silence ensued between the two men, as neither of them felt the need to add anything else, and the chuunin quietly finished eating his serving of tempura.

“I wanted to thank you,” the chuunin finally said and the Copy nin’s visible features shifted into a puzzled expression, his eyebrow raising comically.

“What for?”

“I heard you and Team seven fought for me when I was fired...” Iruka explained softly and at those words, the jounin quickly looked away, looking embarrassed.

“You don’t need to thank me. I did what I thought was right, that’s all.”

“I heard you were quite... convincing,” the academy teacher said with amusement and Kakashi shifted uncomfortably on his chair, his gray eye still avoiding Iruka’s brown ones. Iruka smiled; somehow, he could not help but find cute the jounin’s sudden shyness.

“Yes well, I’m not exactly the kind of guy people want to confront...” the silver-haired man explained weakly and Iruka laughed warmly.

“I can guess.”

\--

The whole meal went well. When Iruka was done eating, they chatted sociably over a cup of coffee, ignoring all the glances people kept on sending them. Then, the chuunin paid for their lunch and they walked aimlessly through the village together, talking about everything and nothing. In the end, they parted a few blocks away from Iruka’s apartment, but right before he went away, the silver-haired man seemed to hesitate. It lasted only a fraction of second, but the brown-haired man saw it. And as Kakashi walked away, the chuunin found himself staring at his retreating back with a thoughtful frown; he had the distinct impression that the jounin had wanted to say something but lost his nerve at the last moment... Somehow, it bugged the academy teacher, who thought about it for the rest of the week-end, feeling both puzzled and mildly annoyed by the Sharigan user’s strange attitude.

Of course, Iruka had his own theory to explain the man’s sudden hesitation - he’d be stupid if he wouldn’t have figured out immediately that the jounin wanted to ask him out. It was obvious. The chuunin just wished he knew why it bugged him so much; he truly didn’t know what to think of Kakashi’s feelings anymore, yet his indecisiveness was starting to annoy him... It didn’t make much sense.

Did it mean he actually wanted to go out with the jounin? Iruka wished he knew... He spent the rest of the week-end wondering what was the nature of his feelings for the Copy nin and why the man’s hesitation was bothering him like that. But much to his own dismay, those questions remained unanswered and when Monday morning finally came, the academy teacher was glad to go back to work, for his musings were soon forgotten at the sight of his energetic students.

As he remembered about his arrival at the academy, Iruka couldn’t help but smile. The seven year olds had been so happy to have him back that it had been impossible to discipline them for the first hour of class or so ; they kept on telling him how much they had missed him and how much of a jerk had been the substitute teacher - some even blabbed proudly of their ‘achievements’ to contest’s Iruka’s departure. The chuunin preferred to refer to those as ‘mischief’ though, because putting fire to the academy, throwing eggs at passer by, breaking a few windows, kidnapping their teacher and breaking havoc into the Hokage tower weren’t quite the kind of things he categorized as ‘achievements’, but his students didn’t seem to mind. When he gave them extra homework to punish them for their horrible behaviour during his absence, the seven year olds didn’t even look put off – obviously, they had been right to do what they had done as far as they were concerned and had no regrets whatsoever, no matter what kind of punishment they received.

But to say the truth, they _had_ gotten off a bit lightly; extra-homework for setting fire to the academy and tying down their substitute teacher to the wall was clearly not a very harsh punishment, and they knew it pretty well. But Iruka didn’t have to heart to be too harsh with them, since they had been doing this for him in a sort of twisted way – even thought the chuunin was convinced that a few of them hadn’t been so interested in defending his rights when they had thrown eggs at villagers and put fire to the west wing of the academy.

And although he would never admit it, the chuunin was a bit proud of his seven year olds for giving a good lesson to the Principal... The old man had it coming. But of course, he would never admit it to his students... or to anyone else, when it comes down to it.

Iruka smiled fondly at the thought of his misbehaving students as he finished packing his belongings in his deserted classroom before heading to the mission room to do his shift at the mission desk, as he always did on Monday afternoon. As he was walking out of the academy, the brown-haired man’s thoughts went to his colleagues and students’ parents reaction and he frowned. He didn’t know what he had expected, but their reaction to his return had been... odd.

Nobody brought up the subject of his dismissal or of his return. They acted as if nothing had happened, talked to him as if everything was normal again. Except that it wasn’t. It c _learly_ wasn’t. Iruka couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong with their whole attitude, but he knew something was off.

Under normal circumstances, he might not have given it much thoughts, but as the academy teacher was walking down the street to reach the mission room, he couldn’t help but notice that people were giving him strange stares. Of course, he was used to the ‘strange stares’ part, but somehow he was under the impression that those stares were a bit different from the ones he usually received. As if there was something new and mildly interesting about him... Not unlike the way his colleagues had acted toward him earlier, now that he thought about it. And Umino Iruka didn’t believe in coincidences; he knew there was something going on. But although this strange change puzzled him a bit, he hardly cared anymore about what people thought or said; he had stooped caring long ago. Nevertheless, this unexpected weird attitude was puzzling him.

Ignoring the stranger than usual stares he kept on receiving, Iruka headed for the mission room, already hoping for his shift to be over – even though he didn’t want to admit it, his little hellions had completely exhausted him. But as he opened the mission room door, he realized that what he had previously thought would be a nice and quiet evening filling out mission reports was turning before his eyes into a very long and painful evening...

The mission room was downright crowded – Iruka had seen it crowded before, but never _that_ much; the room was so packed with people that the brown-haired man wondered how he was going to be able to make his way to the mission desk. But what really upset the chuunin was not the ridiculously high number of nin packed in the small room, but the whole atmosphere the room radiated. If Iruka hadn’t known better, he would have thought there was a party going on in the place; people were joking out loud and laughing cheerfully, making so much noise his ears were protesting already – obviously, they weren’t there to share gossips or to spy on him. Or at least if they were, this was a very disturbing new strategy...

Iruka stood at the entrance of the room for a good minute, staring with incredulous eyes at the unbelievable mess the noisy mission room was in. He had expected people to sober up a bit because of his presence but strangely, nobody seemed to mind him being there at all. In fact, some people Iruka had never seen in his whole life even greeted him with knowing smiles and patted him on the back affectionately, which only made the chuunin more uncomfortable and suspicious than before. This wasn’t right... The academy teacher knew he should have felt relieved by the fact that people didn’t seem to be so obsessed with him anymore, but somehow he couldn’t help but think that this new atmosphere hid an unpleasant surprise...

As he stared at the room, Iruka suddenly noticed that in the back of the room, somebody’s head was standing a good three feet higher than anybody else, and he could only guess that the said person was standing on a chair or on the mission desk. The said man was busy writing down things in a note book and taking flat, green things from people that looked suspiciously like money bills...

Oh no, this couldn’t be good. The chuunin had a very bad feeling about this...

Scrutinizing, Iruka easily recognized the man who was standing on the mission desk and felt anger stir in him at once. But of course, it had to be _him_ again - the chuunin wasn’t even surprised to see him there. No doubts that _he_ was behind all that commotion! Who else could turn the mission room into such a mess so easily? But it couldn’t go on like that; whatever what that man may think, the mission room was NOT a party room and Iruka was determined to find out what this commotion was about this time and put an end to it. They could call him a party wrecker if they liked, but he was not going to allow such a ridiculous exhibit of lack of professionalism to take place under his shift. No, sir.

The academy teacher braced himself and difficultly made his way through the tight crowd, pushing people out of his way until he finally reached the mission desk on which stood an enthusiast Genma.

“Genma-san!” he yelled through the commotion to be heard. The jounin heard his name and turned around; when he saw Iruka, a wide smile graced his good-looking face and he positively beamed at the brown-haired man.

“Hey, hi Iruka,” Genma greeted the brown-haired man warmly, bending forward him to make it easier for them to talk. “How are you?”

“Genma-san, _what is going on here?_ ” the chuunin asked sternly, on a tone he usually used against misbehaving students and which had proved with the years to be just as efficient even with the wildest jounins presenting their badly-filled reports to the mission room. But like Iruka had noticed several times before, Shiranui Genma seemed to be immunized against it, the academy teacher’s annoyance and sharpness bouncing off the carefree man. And just like Iruka had feared, the senbon user didn’t seem to mind the teacher’s obvious annoyance; on the opposite, his smile only widened at the man’s sharp words.

“Well, we’re having a betting pool,” he announced cheerfully, and Iruka mentally twitched.

A betting pool.

In the mission room.

For some reason, the chuunin felt the urge to punch the man for being such an irresponsible jerk and for lacking so much judgment. He was about to scold the jounin, but then thought better of it and eyed him warily; Iruka hoped the jounin had had enough common sense – or at least, enough sense of self-preservation – not to start a betting pool that possibly could stirr the Hokage's anger. Iruka remembered only too well the Godaime’s fury when the opportunist man had used his position as temporary Hokage bodyguard to go through her secret files to find his crush’s birthday... And so did most of the village, in fact - Tsunade-sama hadn’t been exactly very quiet about it. But surely enough, Genma wasn’t stupid and careless enough to do the same mistake _twice_...

Yeah, right.

“And what exactly is this betting pool about?” Iruka asked warily, fearing another outburst from the short-tempered Hokage. Whatever he had expected the jounin to answer, he hadn’t expected _that_.

“About you and Kakashi ending up together or not.”

Genma had said it casually, as if he was talking about the weather, and Iruka stared at him dumbly. It took the chuunin’s frozen brain a good three seconds for the smiling man’s words to sink in, and then Iruka felt incredulity and indignation swell inside of him. He stared at the older man’s face, some part of him hoping to find on it the proof that this was just a very bad joke, but the honest eagerness showing on the jounin’s face proved his hopes to be vain. This... this couldn’t be! He couldn’t be serious! _This couldn’t be!_

“ _Say what?!”_ the academy teacher asked indignantly, glaring at the bandana-wearing man, but the jounin once again didn’t seem to be affected by the brunette’s glare; he merely smiled at the man’s sharp words.

“Oh, it’s just the starting bet,” Genma explained playfully, and Iruka could only gape at him, shocked by his carefree attitude. “If you want, you can bet on more precise things, like on which date you’re gonna kiss, who’s gonna be the women in the couple, how long you’ll stay together... you get the drift. Some weird fellow came two hours ago and bet 200 bucks that Kakashi would give you a nurse uniform for your birthday, see how large the range is. Some bets are even a bit disturbing, if you ask me; I know we’ve got our share of perverts in town, but still-”

“Wait, let’s just make this clear,” Iruka cut him sharply, “You’re betting on _my private life_?”

“Yup,” the jounin answered unblushingly, “Well of course, I can’t have you or Kakashi entering the pool - it wouldn’t be fair, you know? But I myself bet on you, sensei. I hope you won’t let me down on this one!” Genma winked playfully at the chuunin and Iruka flushed furiously at the man’s carefree words. He couldn’t believe the _guts_ of that man!

“ _N-No_!” Iruka protested indignantly, “Genma-san, you _can’t_ do that!” The senbon user eyed him with surprise.

“What, betting on you? Come on sensei, have more faith in yourself!”

“No! I mean this betting pool!” Iruka all but cried, exasperation making him snappy. “You _can’t_ do something like that!”

The senbon-user gave him a mildly puzzled look. “Why not?”

“Because it’s _my_ LIFE, Genma!”

Iruka didn’t know what he had expected the jounin to say, but when Genma burst out laughing at his words, he was left speechless. Iruka stared at him, stupefied by the man’s arrogance and shameless lack of empathy. Laughing, the bandana-wearing man shoved aside his arguments with a casual wave of the hand. “Oh, don’t be so prude, sensei!” Then, he flashed a wide smile to the chuunin and turned away to face a nin brandishing money toward him, ready write take another bet.

As Genma wrote down into his notebook the man’s bet, Iruka saw red. His fits clenched painfully, the academy teacher stared with disgust and bitter anger the jounin as he took away the better’s money, barely containing his anger. Didn’t he realize how wrong it was? _Didn’t **they** realize how wrong it was!?_ This was really too much!

“I _don’t_ think the Hokage would approve of it,” Iruka hissed between his teeth with a glare that could have pierced a whole through a concrete wall. But once again, the chuunin’s anger seemed to bounce off Genma, who merely smirked at the academy teacher.

“Hell yes she does,” Genma answered jovially, “she bet 600 bucks on you.”

At those words, Iruka felt something snap in him.

The Hokage. Even the _goddamn_ Hokage. That was the last straw. That was really _too much_. The jounin must have felt it too, because his smile suddenly faded away and he slowly started to back down carefully; so did the other nins surrounding him, who had also sensed the danger.

But unfortunately for them, it was already too late.

“ **OUT!!** ” the chuunin positively roared, “All of you, ** _GET OUT!!_** ”

The mission room didn’t need to be told twice. In less than three seconds, the whole room was completely deserted, apart from another chuunin in duty at the mission desk, who looked very much like he wanted to be anywhere else. And for a good reason too, because Umino Iruka looked like he boiling with anger. And in fact, he truly _was_ boiling with anger.

Oh, if he ever put his hands on that Genma again, he swore he’d make him regret to be born...!


	11. Chapter 11

“So, where did you put your money?”

“On Iruka-sensei, of course.”

In the hallway leading to class B-31, three academy teachers were chatting together. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the students were happily playing outside; their laugh and cries could be heard clearly by the teachers, who wanted nothing else but to join them and make the most of the beautiful day. But instead they stood patiently by class B-31, talking together to pass time as they waited for their newfound favorite subject of speculation to show up.

“That’s awfully risky,” the purple-haired woman said placidly, “I doubt he has much chance winning the Copy nin’s heart.”

“So you bet they wouldn’t end up together?” her long-nosed friend asked incredulously and the purple-haired woman nodded.

“How can you think something like that?!” a tanned blond man almost scolded her. “I, too, thought he didn’t stand a chance at first, but it would be plain stupid not to realize he _does_ with every thing that happened!”

“I tend to agree. Kakashi taking care of Yumo’s class, their dinner at the Yakitori stand... It could have meant nothing, but the way he stormed into the Hokage tower to contest Iruka-sensei’s dismissal, and the dinner at the restaurant that followed... Those are signs that don’t lie, Uutaru-sensei.”

“Ryoko-sensei’s right; those signs don’t lie!”

“I don’t see what’s so irrefutable about them,” Uutaru argued coolly, “It’s not because he got angry after the Principal for firing Iruka that it means he likes the guy. For all we know, he could have invited the chuunin out to clarify the whole misunderstanding and turn him down gently.”

“Then what do you say about the witnesses who say they were acting all lovey-dowey?” the blonde asked triumphantly and his colleague rolled her eyes.

“If they had such a nice time together, then why hadn’t they been seen together for the past three days?”

At those sharp words, the man looked put down; obviously, he had given it some thoughts as well.

“It doesn’t mean anything...” he hazarded hesitantly, “Kakashi-sensei may be out for a mission, for all we know.”

Obviously, he was not convinced, and the purple-haired woman must had noticed it because she smirked at him teasingly. “Not so sure about your money being safe anymore, Deremi-kun?”

“Shut up, both of you!” the woman named Ryoko suddenly hissed, “he’s coming this way!”

Iruka was heading to his designated classroom, the sound of children playing outside making him smile fondly as he walked; their enthusiasm and seemingly endless energy was so cute... out of working hours, of course. Because inside a classroom, it was another story, and Iruka couldn’t help but smirk darkly at the thought. The same children who were laughing and playing so carelessly would probably be a hell to live with in the afternoon, caught in a small and hot classroom reviewing chakra theories while it was such a beautiful day outside... But it did not stress Umino Iruka. He’d known worse.

As the chuunin was walking down to his classroom to prepare the blackboard for the afternoon lessons, he could not miss to notice that he was not the only person who was foolish enough to stay inside on such a beautiful weather – some of his colleagues were standing right next to his classroom, seemingly caught in a discussion about their students. _Again_. At that sight, Iruka’s features darkened and he fought back a groan of annoyance.

They thought they were subtle, standing there as if it was the best place to do some small talk? Creating occasions to talk to him, asking him questions about his well-being that were hardly innocent...? Who did they think they were fooling? And more importantly, didn’t they have anything better to do than constantly trying to pry out of him some information about his love life?! It was really getting ridiculous...!

Because Umino Iruka wasn’t fooled by their kind words and sudden friendly and caring attitude; he knew pretty well his colleagues – and all the other people who started acting friendly with him lately – only hoped to find out how things were going between Kakashi and him because they 1) were curious as hell and/or 2) wanted to know if their money was safe and what they should bet on next.

Iruka felt a fresh wave of frustration soar in him at the thought; it seemed like most of the academy staff had put some money on Genma’s betting pool... Cross that out, it seemed most of the village had bet some money on that damned stupid pool! If he ever put his hands on that damned jounin...! But the academy teacher knew only too well it was not going to happen. The senbon user may be a careless bastard, but he was not stupid; he knew better than to hang out anywhere he could run into an angry Umino Iruka. Which was a shame really, because the chuunin’s fist was DYING to meet with the honey-haired man’s face... That thought brought a disappointed sigh to Iruka’s lips. At least, he stopped using the mission room as a betting lounge... It was already an improvement of some sort, right?

As Iruka approached his classroom, his coworkers faked surprise to see him.

“Hey, it’s Iruka-sensei!”

“How are you, sensei?”

“Funny, we were happening to be thinking about you! What do you think about-?”

But the chuunin wasn’t going to let them have their way. He passed by his coworkers without even looking at them and excused himself curtly, pretending to have homework to correct and the next thing the three chuunin knew, Iruka was shutting the classroom’s door in their mildly shocked faces and abandoning them in the hallway. Once sheltered inside the deserted room B-31, the brown-haired man let out a shaky sigh. He knew what he had done was awfully rude, but he couldn’t bring himself to care anymore – anything was good to get rid of those vultures...! Oh, how he wished people would stop taking so much interest for his private life so that he could go back to anonymity... He would have never thought he’d long to be just another random and average chuunin before.

Really, people never appreciated enough the good things in their life before they were gone.

With that thought in mind, the academy teacher started to write the afternoon lesson on the black board. Minutes slowly passed by and he soon lost track of time as he traced lines and made illustrations on the board. He was almost done his taijutsu graphic when he felt someone’s presence behind him. Quickly turning around, the chuunin’s tense muscles relaxed at the sight of the silver mass of air and the infamous orange book that followed it everywhere.

Smirking, Iruka turned around to finish his graphic. “Can’t you enter by the door, like normal people do, Kakashi-sensei?”

“What would be the point of being a genius if I would have to act like normal people?”

Finishing his example, the tan man snorted and turned around to face his visitor. The jounin was slouched against a desk two meters away from him, looking as casual as ever with his bright orange book in his hand. “What brings you here on such a nice day, Kakashi-sensei?”

“Well, I was passing by and I thought I’d come and say ‘hi’,” the jounin explained lazily, but somehow Iruka wasn’t convinced. He raised his eyebrow skeptically.

“Really? You sneaked inside the academy under the nose of a dozen chuunins who spend most of their lunchtime looking out for any clue of your presence just to say ‘hi’?”

The jounin looked a bit embarrassed, but his unmasked eye curved happily. “Maa, I don’t want to speak badly of your coworkers, sensei, but it wasn’t exactly that difficult. They were so caught up talking about you that I doubt they could have noticed me even if I had asked them my way to your class.”

Surprisingly, those words made the chuunin laughed softly; it was funny how people’s interest for him, which had annoyed him only moments ago, now sounded oddly amusing out of the Copy nin’s mouth.

“At least they were not stalking me,” the chuunin joked and Kakashi chuckled under his breath. Then, there was a short silence between the two men, as neither of them knew what to say next. Iruka silently watched the Copy nin, who was staring back at him funnily. Was Iruka’s mind tricking him or was the jounin looking hesitant all of a sudden...? The chuunin's doubts were confirmed when the Sharigan user suddenly looked away, avoiding his eyes.

“Sensei,” the Copy nin spoke up quietly, “I was wondering...”

Looking embarrassed, Kakashi paused and rubbed the back of his neck shyly, his gaze glued to his feet. Iruka felt his heart beating faster in his ribcage; he knew only too well what that shy hesitation meant... Swallowing uneasily, the chuunin stood against his teacher desk nervously, waiting with anticipation for the unavoidable words to be finally out of the masked man’s mouth. Some part of his mind reasoned out that since he didn’t know exactly what he was supposed to answer the jounin, he should have felt more anxious than nervous about it, but somehow he wasn’t.

“... well, maybe we could, you know...”

A blush appeared on the borders of the Sharigan user’s mask and Iruka felt his heart pounding so hard in his chest it was hard for him to think, his brain strangely frozen as the man opened his mouth...

And just then, the classroom door burst open loudly and a dozen loud and excited seven year-olds dashed in energetically. Both men stared at them, surprised by the little hellions’ sudden appearance, and the children stared back, puzzled by the weird tense expression on their teacher’s face and the presence of the masked jounin in the classroom. Some kids eyed them with curious and mildly wary eyes, obviously oblivious to what was going, while a few others seemed to have realized what they had walked in to; a brown-haired boy grimaced and four little girls started giggling together at the sight of them.

Yes, _giggling_.

Now, if a bunch of seven year-olds showing up hadn’t quite done it, the giggling certainly _killed_ the mood. But as if things were not bad enough already, more children rushed into the classroom and joined their staring little friends, eying them with wide, puzzled eyes, and Iruka inwardly groaned, knowing that things were going to go downward. And sure enough, staring soon proved to be not sufficient for the curious kids and a flood of questions rapidly filled the silent classroom.

“What is HE doing here?”

“Are you leaving again, sensei?”

“Is he your boyfriend?”

“Is the afternoon class cancelled?!”

“Is he going to watch over us again?”

“Where are you going, Iruka-sensei?”

“Can we come with you?”

“Now, calm down,” the chuunin reassured them hastily, trying his best to stay calm and collected. “I’m not going anywhere and _yes_ , you do still have class this afternoon. Now go back to your seats, everyone.”

The kids let out a low moan of protest but listened to their teacher and went back to their desks reluctantly, sending curious glances – and amused knowing looks - to the silver-haired jounin standing in front of the class as they did so. Iruka sent a sorry smile to Hatake Kakashi, who was slouched casually against one of the desk, looking a bit lost. When the chuunin’s eyes fell on him, his uncovered eye curved up again.

“Sorry to cause you trouble, sensei,” he excused himself with a hidden apologetic smile, “I’ll be going. See you around.”

Before the chuunin could even protest or answer, the Copy nin was already gone, the small cloud of smoke lingering in front of him being the only proof of the jounin’s presence in class B-31.

Staring at the place where Hatake Kakashi had been stading only moments ago, Iruka for some reason felt annoyed by the unfortunate turn out of his meeting with the silver-haired man. In fact, it downright irritated him. To think that Kakashi had been about to...! But nooo, his students had to come out of nowhere and ruin the mood! And now Kakashi was gone, scared off by a bunch of inquisitive seven year olds! He had been – _this_ \- close to finally saying it, but he backed down at the last moment again like some scared twelve year-old with his first crush! It was infuriating... But to say the truth, Iruka didn’t know what was pissing him off the most: the jounin’s lack of gust or his students’ horrible timing and inconsiderate meddling. Both were actually quite frustrating...

Eying his students darkly, Iruka decided he was in a fool mood.

And somebody was going to pay for that.

“Take out a sheet of paper everyone!” he belowed to his students, “Pop-quizz!”

Another low moan echoed through the small classroom, but the sever year-olds did not protest; they knew better than to when their beloved sensei made that kind of face.

\--

“Are you alright, Iruka-sensei? You look... preoccupied?”

Looking up, the chuunin stared at the blond young man sitting beside him, who was frowning slightly at him.

“I’m fine, Naruto,” Iruka reassured the teen with a sorry smile, “I just had a rough day.”

The blonde did not look entirely satisfied with that answer, but didn’t say anything about it and his ex-teacher was quite glad, because he wouldn’t have known what to answer the teen. Inwardly sighing, the brown-haired man thought back of his day and wondered why he was feeling so exhausted. Despite the fact that the kids had been abnormally energetic and loud, it hadn’t been such a rough day, unlike he had told his favorite ex-student... Of course, the whole village had seemed to go out of its way to annoy him, but it wasn’t anything new either. And it took more than that to tire him out.

But now that he thought about it, ‘exhausted’ wasn’t quite right to describe how he was feeling. Frowning thoughtfully, the academy teacher tried to find the right word to describe his strange mind state, but he rapidly gave up and pushed the whole matter aside. It was pointless to wonder about such an useless thing. Because if he didn’t know how exactly he was feeling, Umino Iruka had pretty good idea why he was feeling like crap. Because if it wasn’t his students nor his colleages’ fault, then it was ought to be Hatake Kakashi’s. _Again_.

Scolding, the chuunin wondered why the Copy nin always managed to stir such strange mixed feelings in him. He found the jounin’s shyness cute, but intimidating at the same time because he was uneasy with the idea that he had such a strong effect on Sharigan Kakashi... And recently, the silver-haired man’s shyness started to annoy him as well. What a mess...!

Did it mean he had some feelings for Hatake Kakashi? He thought over that first option carefully. Well, he did know for a fact that he was attracted to some point to the man – he had come to that conclusion not without some surprise long ago. Sure, he liked to spend time with him and enjoyed a lot his presence... But did it mean he was ready to take the next step? If the jounin would have finished that sentence back in the classroom, what would he have answered?

Strangely enough, he honestly didn’t know what to answer to that question. Then, why was he feeling so frustrated and annoyed at the Copy nin for running away and not asking him out like he was supposed to? Was that supposed to mean something...?

Sighing, Iruka pushed away those messy thoughts; he was tired already of asking himself all those questions over and over again. Until he found out what his true feelings were, he was better off not thinking too much about it, he decided tiredly.

At that moment, their orders arrived and the chuunin tucked in silently, chasing all those preoccupations out of his mind and focusing his thoughts back to the present, that is to say, his meeting with his favorite ex-pupil.

“And you, Naruto? How have you been? I haven’t seen you much lately.”

“Fine,” the teen grunted, and mild worry stirred inside Iruka; he had never heard the blonde sounding so gloomy before. There was ought to be something wrong there. His suspicions were confirmed when he looked up from his ramen bowl to stare at his ex-student, who was eating his noodles at a strangely slow pace, a thoughtful expression on his scowling face - obviously, there was something wrong. The chuunin couldn’t remember the last time he had seen the blonde tornado looking so grim and it worried him. Staring at the young man sitting beside him, Umino Iruka felt guilt spread through him; he had been so engrossed with his own thoughts and worries that he had, shamefully enough, missed to notice that something was upsetting his favorite ex-student. What a lousy parental figure he made!

“Is there something worrying you, Naruto?” the brown-haired man asked him quietly. Looking up, the blonde stared at the academy teacher, looking mildly surprised by the question, but quickly adverted his gaze to his ramen again.

“’Doesn’t matter,” he finally answered, shrugging.

“It does matter if it affects you this much - you’re barely eating your ramen bowl,” the chuunin joked lightly, hoping to lighten up the mood. He was rewarded with a tiny laugh coming from the teen, some life stirring back in the blonde’s eyes. But the small smile that graced the teen’s features soon slipped off as Naruto started to stare at his food bitterly.

“It’s Sasuke,” he explained half-heatedly. “He’s being an ass.”

“And how is that different from any other day?” Iruka said again, but his joke didn’t seen to amuse the teen much; on the opposite, it seemed to only aggravate him.

“No, it’s different! Ever since she showed up, he’s been acting like a real moron-!”

“Wait, _she_?” the chuunin cut him curiously and to his surprise, the teen looked a bit embarrassed.

“Yeah, well, there’s that girl...”

Looking away, the blonde rubbed his neck shyly and Iruka stared at him with wide eyes, not believing his ears.

“Naruto! You never told me you had a girlfriend!”

“She’s not my girlfriend!” the teen protested with something of his usual energy, his cheeks turning into a cute shade of pink. “We’re not going out yet, but... She’s really nice to me, and we started spending time together recently...”

Iruka smiled at the teen’s obvious embarrassment, feeling happy that Naruto had found somebody special to him. But soon enough, his smile faltered and the chuunin felt something sink in his stomach as his brain caught up with his heart. Naruto met with a girl and Sasuke started acting weirdly. Somehow, Iruka had a pretty good idea what was going on...

Putting his smile back on, the chuunin eyed his ex-students with fake mild curiosity. “Then, what’s the problem?”

“ _Sasuke!_ ” Naruto said angrily, “He’s acting like a real ass, I’ve never seen him being so moody before! He keeps on snapping at me and bitching her all the time!”

“Maybe he’s just afraid that you’ll be less present for him as a friend if you go out with her?” Iruka hazarded hopefully, but the teen shook his head.

“I thought it was that at first too, but we had that talk already. I told him it wouldn’t change anything between us and that he’d still be my best bud and everything. But he just sneered at me and said that _I didn’t understand!_ ”

The teen moodily took a mouthful of ramen and swallowed it, obviously angry after his best friend for acting weirdly, and Iruka inwardly sighed. Somehow, he had known he would hear something like that, yet he wished he hadn’t. Dealing with a clueless teenager’s love issues was _really_ not his thing. But he knew it couldn’t really be avoided; Naruto had grown over the years into a fine-looking and charming young man - it was, afterall, bound to happen one day or another.

With some irony, the chuunin thought that his little speculations about the raven-haired teen’s true feelings for his best friend had just been confirmed, in the end. Not that he was happy about it; it only complicated things for him, because Iruka highly doubted that Naruto knew what was truly going on, no matter how obvious it could be. Which meant he was going to have to explain it to him, something he felt very reluctant to do because he didn’t want to reveal Sasuke’s secret and had no idea how he was supposed to explain to Naruto that the reason why his best buddy was acting like a moron was because he had a secret crush on him and was jealous. Moreover, he had no idea how Naruto would react to such news, so the prospect of breaking the news to the teen didn’t quite rejoice him much.

But Iruka _had_ to explain what was going on to Naruto. He had to explain it to him before he did something out of place that could ruin his friendship with the Uchiha heir – and the chuunin knew Naruto was fully capable of it. Because he would never forgive himself if he kept is mouth shut and that it caused more trouble between his ex-students. But at the same time, he’d never forgive himself if his revelations ended up messing up Naruto’s relationship with Sasuke either...

“’I don’t understand, I don’t understand!’ Like hell I don’t understand!” the teen mumbled angrily, breaking Iruka’s chain of thoughts. “Sasuke’s a jerk. An egoist, selfish and jealous _jerk_!”

Those words surprised Iruka; he started to doubt Naruto’s obliviousness to his best friend’s feelings. Saying that Sasuke was jealous... the teen sounded like he had a pretty good idea of what was going on, afterall. But surely enough, if Naruto knew about Sasuke’s secret, then he wouldn’t make such acid comments about him, wouldn’t he? Naruto wasn’t an heartless person - he’d never be pissed after somebody for having unwanted feelings for him. Naruto wasn’t like that.

“Jealous? Why are you saying that?”

“Isn’t that obvious, Iruka-sensei?” the blonde asked him incredulously, as if it was the most obvious thing on heart. “He’s jealous of me!”

Iruka openly stared at his ex-pupil, bewildered by such an unexpected revelation.

“What do you mean, he’s jealous of you? Does he have feelings for her?”

“Of course not! He’s just jealous because for once, there’s a girl who’s interested in me instead of him! Mister ‘Uchiha heir’ Sasuke, who has most of the female single population at his feet, can’t stand the thought that he can’t have them all and that _I_ could have a girlfriend!”

Iruka blinked stupidly at the teen, feeling overwhelmed by incredulity. Surely enough, Naruto couldn’t think something like that? This had to be one of the most ridiculous explanation he’d never heard! Couldn’t he see that such a reflexion was lacking of common sense?!

“Naruto...” the chuunin started off hesitantly, unsure about how he was supposed to address the matter, “Don’t you think you overlooked a few elements in your analysis?” The teen stared at his ex-teacher silently, as if he didn’t know where the man was heading, and Iruka sighed. “I mean, I might be wrong, but Sasuke-kun never really showed kind of interest for girls in general before, right...?”

“My point exactly! He doesn’t like any of them, yet he can’t stand the thought that I can have an admirer for myself! He’s such a selfish bastard!”

Iruka felt exasperation grow in him; obviously, this was going to be harder than he first thought. As if it was not already hard enough, the teenager had to be so oblivious about it...! Him, who was usually so fast at catching up! But to Naruto’s defense, it wasn’t exactly easy to imagine that a male colleague or friend could have feelings for you – if Iruka hadn’t overheard this discussion in the bathhouse weeks ago, he probably would have never imagined, even in his wildest dreams, that Kakashi-sensei had a soft spot for him.

Summoning all his courage, the chuunin decided to be a bit bolder.

“Can I ask you a question, Naruto?”

The blonde looked mildly puzzled by the sudden seriousness of that question. “Sure.”

“What do you think about homosexuality?”

“Homosexuality?” the teen asked him incredulously. “What does it have to do with Sasuke?”

“Just answer the question, will you?”

Frowning slightly, Naruto stared at his ex-teacher thoughtfully, an unreadable expression on his still boyish face. “...Well, I guess I’m okay with it.”

“You’re ‘okay’ with it?”

“Yeah, I’m okay with it,” the teen shrugged, “I mean, people should not pretend to be what they’re not and live the way they want to live, or so I think.”

“... So, _hypothetically_ , if you were to have a male friend who preferred men, you wouldn’t mind?”

“Of course not!” Naruto protested, as if the mere thought of it was ridiculous.

“But what if, hypothetically, a male friend of yours had feelings for you?” the chuunin asked carefully, expecting the young man to finally understand the message lying underneath all those questions. He presumed the blonde would look puzzled. Or shocked. Or put off, maybe. In fact, he was ready for any kind of reaction. But strangely enough, the teen did _not_ react. He simply stared at the brown-haired with mild interest, as if encouraging him to talk, which disconcerted the chuunin.

“Would you be okay with that...? With the possibility... of being liked by a man?” he hesitantly pushed the issue a bit further, carefully watching for any kind of reaction coming from the blue-eyed teen. “Or even with the possibility of liking men yourself...?”

Then, the teenager did something that completely overthrew Iruka. His lips twisted into an amused knowing grin.

“You know Iruka-sensei, you don’t have to go all ‘hypothetically’ with me, I have no problem with you liking men and going out with Kakashi-sensei. As long as you’re happy, then you should go for it, really, and don’t give a shit about what people may think! And it’s about time that you find yourself a nice little boyfriend, if you want my advice.”

Iruka blinked stupidly at his ex-pupil before catching up the misunderstanding and then, he felt his cheeks heat up. Naruto thought he was looking for some guidance about his own love life! Looking away, the scarred man inwardly groaned, feeling both embarrassed and annoyed by Naruto’s previous comment.

“I’m not talking about me and Kakashi-sensei!” he snapped with exasperation.

To Iruka’s growing frustration, Naruto gave him a flat, dubious look. “Come on sensei, there’s no point denying it.”

“Naruto,” the brown-haired man said on a controlled voice, doing his best to stay focused on his unpleasant self-imposed mission and put aside his exasperation. “Did it ever come to your mind that Sasuke-kun might not be jealous of _you_?”

“What do you mean?” the teen asked, frowning. “Sasuke, not jealous?”

“I’m not saying that Sasuke-kun is not jealous,” Iruka said quietly, carefully choosing his words, “But he might not be jealous of you, but rather... of _her_.”

“Jealous of her...?” Naruto frowned, looking a bit lost. But then, his eyes widened as realization fell on him and he gaped at the academy teacher. Iruka couldn’t quite tell if he was looking more like an over-sized fish out of water or a lost four year-old in the middle of a crowded market place, but either way, he felt bad for the shocked teen. Obviously, the possibility of his best friend having a crush on him had never even crossed his mind, and more than before, Iruka wished he hadn’t been the one breaking the news to him. The poor Naruto was looking so upset...

“So you think Sasuke...?” he trailed on with a chocked voice, obviously unable to express the news into words.

“I never said I thought such a thing,” Iruka hastily denied, trying to reassure him a bit. “But... but it’s a possibility.”

“So you _do_ think Sasuke does,” the blonde concluded on a white voice and the chuunin inwardly cursed his very poor lying skills. Turning around slowly, Naruto stared at his mostly untouched ramen bowl with a distant, blank expression on his face that worried Iruka.

“... Does it... bother you?” Iruka asked soflty.

“No...! Well, I mean... This is just so sudden,” the teenager mumbled into his ramen, “I never thought Sasuke... saw me _that_ way.”

Iruka remained silent; he understood only too well what his ex-pupil meant. Silence stretched between them, and the chuunin realized after a while that they must have made a strange sight; a grown up man and a fifteen year-old teenager together at Ichiraku’s, both staring gravely at their cold ramen bowls. Not that he minded – at the moment, of his thoughts were directed toward the troubled teenager sitting beside him and somehow, nothing else seemed to matter. Even Kakashi-sensei’s failed attempt to ask him out didn’t seem so bothersome anymore.

After a while, Naruto sighed heavilly and took his head into his hands, looking distraught.

“What a mess...!” Naruto whined under his breath.

“Come on,” Iruka comforted him weakly, “It’s not that bad...”

Predictably, those words did not seem to cheer Naruto up much and Iruka sighed. The chuunin did not know when he decided he was going to do it. Because he honestly did not want to torture the young man any more than he already had. But the teacher in him didn’t allow him to remain silent. Not when it was obvious that the blonde needed guidance.

“You know, Naruto... Before you do anything, I think you should ask yourself two questions,” Iruka said quietly and the blonde looked up at him, listening to him attentively. “First: Are you interested in men and if so, would you be able to see Sasuke ‘that’ way?”

Predictably, those two questions upset the fifteen year-old even more. As soon as they were out of Iruka’s mouth, a funny stunned expression appeared on Naruto’s face, but gradually doubts started to cloud his face as the teen pondered about the questions stated by his ex-teacher. “I don’t know... I – I never really thought about that before...” he muttered with confusion, and once again the chuunin understood only too well the blonde’s inner turmoil.

“It’s okay to be confused, Naruto. When it come down to such questions, sometimes the answer doesn’t appear magically... and you’ve got to figure out on your own,” Iruka said quietly, trying to find some advice coming from his experience to reassure the troubled teen. Not that his own experience on the matter could honestly be of any help to anyone; he had no idea himself where he was standing with Kakashi-sensei and still couldn’t decide whether or not he wanted to go out with him. Worse yet, he tried to avoid questioning himself rather than facing his doubts like an adult...! He had no right to give advice to anyone when it came down to love, but on the other hand, he could not let Naruto down, especially when he was obviously so confused. His words, which had sounded empty and meaningless to the academy teacher, seemed to comfort a bit the blonde young man, who nodded slowly, staring at his ramen bowl thoughtfully. Then, they remained silent for a long moment, and Iruka let his ex-student quietly digest all this new information.

“And you,” Naruto suddenly asked aften long minutes of silence, looking up at his ex-teacher with something of his usual playfulness, “did you figure it out already? With Kakashi-sensei, I mean?”

Iruka raised his eyebrows, surprised by the sudden reorientation of the discussion to his own love issues. Surprised and bothered, since it was not a subject he felt like discussing with anyone – and especially not with Naruto. But after what had been said, the brown-haired man guessed it was only natural for the Kyuubi holder to want to talk about something else to take his mind off things and chase his confusion away, if only for a small while. So the chuunin reluctantly played the game, for Naruto’s sake.

“I wish I had,” he answered with a small laugh, feeling uneasy.

“But didn’t you have a date already?”

“No,” Iruka corrected the teen with a frown, “Kakashi-sensei and I ate together simply because I owed him a lunch, but we never had a date per see.” He was a bit surprised to be asked such a question by Naruto, since most of the town already knew that information.

“You mean he haven’t asked you out yet?” the blonde asked a bit incredulously.

“No, he haven’t...” Iruka trailed on, watching his ex-pupil closely. Somehow, his sixth sense told him that there was something off with the teenager. Yet Naruto was watching him with honest curiosity and listening attentively to him...

Maybe a bit _too_ attentively.

“Naruto...” the chuunin said on a low, serious voice – the kind of voice he used when he wanted misbehaving students to spill the beans. “You put money on that betting pool, _didn’t you_?”

The effect was instantaneous; at those words, the young man’s features froze comically and he eyed his ex-teacher nervously in a way that was far too similar to the way a dog looked at its master when caught doing something wrong for Iruka’s taste. It could have been written ‘guilty’ on his forehead for what that expression meant, and even Naruto must have know it, because he didn’t even try to deny having done it.

“I didn’t intend to!” he defended himself with agitation. “It was Sasuke who-”

“I don’t even want to know,” the brown-haired man answered flatly. But then, a playful smirk appeared on his face, and he eyed his ex-pupil mischievously. “But if you’ve got enough money to bet, then you’ve got enough to pay for your own meal, don’t you?”

“WHAT! You can’t be serious?! I didn’t even get to eat it and it’s all cold now!”

“And how is that my problem?” the chuunin asked playfully as he started to eat his long-cold noodles and Naruto stared helplessly at the joyful brown-haired man, wondering if it had been such a good idea to match him up with their team leader afterall.

 

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Actually, there's an epilogue, so stay tuned ;)

“Good afternoon.”

“Good afternoon.”

“It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

“Indeed.” The reply was so flat it would have disheartened even the most courageous men. The jounin hesitated a bit, but decided to try his luck nonetheless.

“It’s the perfect day to got out with friends... or with a lover."

“How fascinating,” came the sharp retort and the man gave a start when his interlocutor forcefully stamped the mission report he had been handed. “Thank you for your hard work. Next!”

Umino Iruka watched the stunned and mildly put off jounin leave the mission desk as another one soon replaced him, looking a bit too enthusiast.

“Good afternoon, sensei!”

Greeting the jounin machinaly, the brown-haired man inwardly sighed. How he was tired of all those people who kept on being friendly with him all the time in hope of hearing some information that could help with their bets! Hadn’t they figured out already that they were not going to get anything out of him? Or were they just plain desperate for more rumors to spread around and discuss? Because they hadn’t had much to talk about lately... not since Kakashi’s departure nearly two weeks ago.

Soon after his last meeting with the jounin at the academy, Team seven was given a nine-days mission to escort some diplomats to a nearby city. They had come back a few days ago, but the silver-haired man had to leave again almost at once – an urgent mission, the chuunin was told. Either way, he hadn’t seen any of them for nearly two weeks now and the rumor network had long worn out all there was to say about him and Kakashi-sensei, thus explaining gossipers’ obvious restlessness state. That thought procured the chuunin intense satisfaction; served them right for being too curious to begin with!

Not that Iruka was happy about Team seven’s prolonged absence. He was starting to feel a bit lonely without Naruto and, even if he was reluctant to admit it, without his strange yet endearing teacher and team leader. Their absence was starting to affect the academy teacher’s mood - especially since he was surrounded all day long by all those annoying people. Iruka had thought he would be stronger than that and that he wouldn’t let it affect him, but the truth was that having to be constantly in presence of those far too curious villagers while he had nobody to confide in made him feel both bitter and morose for some reason. He guessed that in that sea of condescending villagers who cared less about him than about what they could learn from him, the presence of people who truly cared was more important for him than ever.

Moreover, the academy teacher was impatient to meet again with his favorite ex-student for other reasons. Ever since they had that discussion at the ramen stand, Iruka had been worrying about how things were going to turn out for the blond-haired teen and he was waiting eagerly for any news of him. He hoped that things were going smoothly between Naruto and his raven-haired best friend... Oh, how he wished he knew what was going on between these two! His discussion with the sixteen year old had been on his mind for days and he kept on hoping he hadn’t made a mistake by telling Naruto about Sasuke’s possible feelings for him. And Iruka felt that he _needed_ to find out what had happened, out of curiosity almost as much as out of worry for his favorite ex-pupil and his rival.

Some part of him felt guilty and mildly shameful for thinking so much about the teenager’s love life; wasn’t he a bit like all those gossipers, feeling curious about something that really wasn’t of his business? Of course not, the brown-haired man thought at once, pushing his doubts aside; his situation was completely different, since _he_ cared. He honestly cared about Naruto, that was why he was so curious to begin with. It was different when you cared, he firmly believed.

But that treacherous voice reminded him again that some of those gossipers he hated with so much passion also cared about him. All those people who had protested against his dismissal cared about him. His coworkers, no matter how infuriatingly speculative, cared about him. His students and ex-students cared. Parents cared. His neighbours cared. The Hokage cared.

Naruto cared.

Kakashi cared...

Which did not stop them to bet on him, he thought darkly. Except for Kakashi-sensei, of course, but all the others had. Even his students. Yes, his _students_. Which reminded him to kill Genma for letting seven year-olds put their pocket money in his betting pool - seriously, just how irresponsible was that man?! If he even put his hands on him, the senbon user was going to regret ever being born... And that was a major understatement.

But anyway, how could people bet on their loved ones’ private life? It truly was beyond the chuunin’s understanding. When you cared about somebody, you were supposed to _support_ them, not to speculate about their life and bet money on it! Or even to openly comment their ugliness and happily argue about who was going to be the ‘ _bottom_ ’ in their relationship! Iruka grimaced at the remembrance of that disturbing and insulting piece of conversation he had overheard recently while he was buying a milk litter at the local store. Really, if Naruto was to ever go out with Sasuke, he would make sure that nobody made such rude and insulting comments in the blonde’s hearing range, even if he had to cut a couple of tongues on the way. Even if they wanted to get a reaction out of him, such comments were beyond the limit of decency...!

Sighing, Iruka tried to chase those annoying comments away from his mind. Maybe it had something to do with the chuunin’s lack of experience and uneasiness in that area, but speculations about his sexual life always affected him a shade more than the others. He knew he shouldn’t care about those more than he cared about whatever other stupid comments and mean speculations he happened to overhear on daily basis, but when he heard people make less than polite comments about him obviously going to be the “submissive” one in their relationship in such a way that it left no doubts to what they were referring to, Iruka couldn’t help but feel a bit hurt and insecure deep down inside. He knew it was stupid of him, but he couldn’t help it – the prospect of doing what they were referring to was making the slightly prude and inexperienced academy teacher uneasy.

Shaking his head, Iruka pushed away his doubts and fears; he did not need to care about these things yet, since he wasn’t in a relationship with the silver-haired man for the moment and didn’t even know if he wanted to go out with him to start with. So worrying about such stupid things was both pointless and idiotic.

Time passed by. Iruka mechanically approved the mission reports that were handed to him and coolly brushed off the hardly innocent comments he received from the nins queueing to give him his report, as he had done almost every day for the last two weeks. Everything was set up for him to have another long and unpleasant shift at the mission room, he thought gloomily as he watched the clock. Three hours left before the end of his shift. That thought made the chuunin sigh wearily. At least after that, he’d be able to hide himself home and try to forget how pathetic his life was starting to become lately... Which meant another evening spent correcting homework, watching insipid shows on television and eating chocolate to soothe his loneliness. To think he was looking forward to that... It was really pathetic.

Maybe it was time for him to go out a bit and try to cheer himself up. Do something, see people. Go to the movie theatre and have a drink somewhere... But as soon as that idea came up, the brown-haired man pushed it aside morosely; he was so _not_ going to get himself drunk in a public area when most of the village was waiting for a chance to make him talk a bit about his love life. That was not even an option.

Then, maybe he could rent a movie and grab some alcohol on his way home... But then again, drinking alone at home probably was in the top five of things one should not do to forget their loneliness. So drinking was out of question, period.

Just as the chuunin gloomily thought that he was once again going to have a boring and pathetic excuse of a day, life proved him wrong as a blond-haired young man entered suddenly the mission room. A smile at once reached Iruka’s face at the sight of his favorite student making his way to the mission desk to see him. But as the blonde approached, the brown-haired man’s happiness to see his favorite ex-pupil was soon replaced by mild surprise and worry since the teenager standing in front of him looked upset. Not the kind of ‘broken heart’ upset though, but rather the ‘scandalized and twichy’ kind of upset, to Iruka’s relief - he preferred dealing with an aggressive and irritated Naruto than a sad one; at least he knew how to deal with the first one. But even as he told himself that, Iruka could not help but worry for the blonde and wonder what could have possibly happened for him to look so irritated. He hoped it had nothing to do with the things they had discussed on their last meeting... But Iruka wasn’t fooling himself.

“Hi Naruto,” Iruka greeted the teen as he mechanically filed the mission reports he had been given.

“Hi sensei,” the young man smiled at him, but his smile looked so forced that it looked painful.

“It’s good to see you again; I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Oh, yeah... Sorry I haven’t been around much lately.”

“It’s okay, I understand,” Iruka reassured him honestly. Naruto was a growing young man after all; it wouldn’t be healthy at all for him to spend too much time with a chuunin in his late twenties like himself. And he could guess that after what he had learned, the teen had been quite busy trying to figure out where he was standing with his best friend and his not-yet girlfriend. But still, Iruka had missed the lively teenager’s presence more than he cared to admit.

“Do you think we could see each other?” the blonde asked suddenly, his voice strangely pressing. Iruka blinked at the unusually forceful invitation, surprised and slightly worried by the plead his ex-pupil’s voice.

“Sure,” the chuunin said slowly. “We could meet after my shift’s over, let’s say at six at Ichiraku’s?”

“ _No_!” the teen answered forcefully and the chuunin stared at him openly, his eyebrows raising. Naruto must have noticed how strange his outburst was sounding because he then grimaced lightly.

“I mean, maybe we could try another place? We’re always eating at Ichiraku’s.”

The blonde had tried to say it casually, but Iruka wasn’t fooled. Naruto, not wanting to eat at his favorite ramen stand? Wanting to try another place? There was something wrong there. But at the sight of the insistent look the young man was sending him, Iruka decided to avoid speaking out his mind for the moment and question the teen later instead, when they would be in a more intimate ambiance. They agreed to meet at the entrance of the mission room at six o’clock and then Naruto stormed out of the room, leaving the chuunin puzzled and mildly worried.

Obviously, there was something bothering the blonde. Maybe those questions he needed to answer to were upsetting him... But somehow, Iruka found highly unlikely that those questions alone could irritate Naruto so much. No, the young man’s agitation was probably due to a confrontation he had with someone - a rather rowdy confrontation, if his ex-student’s aggressiveness was any clue. And somehow, Iruka had a pretty good idea who that person was.

That thought alarmed the chuunin more than anything else; he hoped his revelations had not messed up Naruto’s friendship with the raven-haired teen... Anyhow it was too late to think about that, the chuunin realized – whatever happened happened, and what he needed to do now was to try to repair the damage and give the best advice he could to the obviously upset teen. Thinking it all over and worrying himself sick over assumptions until his shift was over was pointless, so he forced himself to push those thoughts away and went back to approving mission reports mechanically. But somehow, he couldn’t help but constantly watch the clock to see how much time was left before his meeting with Naruto, feeling both curious and apprehensive to finally know what the teenager’s strange behavior had all been about.

It was almost a relief for Umino Iruka when the 4 o’clock rush finally arrived, as he was so busy he hardly had time left to feel anxious or worried. Nin succeeded one another to hand in their reports and before Iruka knew it, it was already 5:40 and the rush was over. Sighing, the chuunin started to mentally prepare himself for the discussion he was going to have with his ex-pupil, although to say the truth, he had no idea what kind of advice he was going to give to Naruto if he had, as he believed, a fight with Sasuke... But as Umino Iruka mused about it, life once again proved him that he wasn’t done having surprises for the day as the Copy nin suddenly entered the mission room.

His clothes were dirthy and torn at several places and his hair had never been messier, but when his uncovered eye met with Iruka’s, the tired jounin smiled, his eye curving up happily and somehow, the chuunin couldn’t help but smile back at him, feeling oddly happy to see him again. There was no doubts about it, he had missed that masked smile.

The Sharigan user walked up to the desk and stopped in front of him, all the eyes in the mission room unsurprisingly following him with uttermost attention.

“Good afternoon, Kakashi-sensei,” Iruka greeted him politely, and the jounin’s eye curved up again as he handed him his mission report.

“Yo.”

Trying his best to remain focused, the brown-haired man rapidly went through the jounin’s report. “This seems to be in order,” he said quietly as he approved the sheet, looking up at the silver-haired man with a smile. “Thank you for your hard work.”

The Sharigan user nodded, but remained silent and stared a bit awkwardly at the chuunin; Iruka was under the impression that the jounin didn’t want to turn around and leave yet, but obviously didn’t know what to say either. But soon enough the man’s dilemma was solved as another nin entered the mission room and headed to Iruka’s desk to hand in his mission. Seeing this, Kakashi curtly said goodbye to the chuunin and left the mission room, much to everyone’s disappointment.

As the newcomer handed his mission to Iruka, the brown-haired man could not help but feel strangely annoyed at the clueless stranger for ruining his moment with Kakashi. And by the sour looks most of the mission room was sending him, he was not the only one to feel a bit resentful about it. Obviously, the silver-haired man wanted to say something to the chuunin, but now they would never find out what it was all about... But some didn’t seem to mind much; a few people in the mission room were already starting to gang up and whisper together, obviously speculating about the lack of interaction between Kakashi and him. What a bunch of vultures, really...! They could at least go elsewhere to gossip like that!

Inwardly cursing his bad luck, Iruka wished he had said something else than his usual polite crap to the jounin as he approved the mission report in front of him – he hadn’t seen him in two weeks, he could have at least said something nice. Not that it would have changed anything, but still... The chuunin thanked the nin for his hard work and watched him head for the door sullenly. To think that only hours ago, he had wished nothing more than to see Naruto and his famous teacher again... But somehow his previous encounter with the agitated blonde and the Copy nin left him with a bitter taste in the mouth. Naruto being upset and Kakashi barely talking to him... that wasn’t exactly what he had in mind when he had thought of meeting again with them.

Going back to his work reluctantly, Iruka tried to think about something to say to Naruto when he would meet with him in fifteen minutes, but he wasn’t able to concentrate on his meeting with the teenager anymore. Somehow, he kept thinking about his meeting – if it could be called a meeting – with Kakashi, their short discussion replaying constantly in his head. And it was especially hard to concentrate with all those goddamned gossipers, whose excited whispers kept on getting louder and louder all the time, the buzz of their conversations getting on the brown-haired man suddenly sensitive nerves. Looking up at them to tell to send them a severe look, Iruka was mildly surprised to discover that nobody in the room was paying attention to him, their avid eyes glued to something that seemed to be on the other side of the mission room door.

Following their glance, the academy teacher was surprised to see no other than Hatake Kakashi standing casually outside the mission room. But he was not alone.

On the other side of the mission room door, Hatake Kakashi was talking with a pretty raven-haired kunoichi. And by the way the said kunoichi was playing with her hair seductively, they were _not_ talking about mission-related stuff.

Iruka stared at the duo in silence, feeling oddly blank for some reason. But soon enough, his surprise was replaced by heartfelt disapproval.

Of course, Iruka was not surprised to see the silver-haired man being wooed. Kakashi was bound to be popular with women; he was an elite jounin, he was cool, he was mysterious, and although his mask hid most of his facial features, he was a well-shaped and good-looking man. He was _bound_ to be popular with women. And that dark-haired kunoichi surely enough was not the only woman in town trying to get on Hatake Kakashi’s good side. There was nothing surprising about it.

Frowning to himself, Iruka tried to go back to work and forget about the seductive kunoichi hovering around the Copy nin. Which proved to be quite difficult, as everybody around him seemed to be speaking of nothing else. The academy teacher could feel the gossipers eying him once in a while, obviously trying to see if the flirty woman’s presence was affecting the chuunin and, in some’s case, wondering if their money was still safe. But Iruka refused to look upset. He did not want to give these jerk the satisfaction of knowing this was affecting him – and anyway, why would he be upset? It was not as if he was _jealous_ or something. Kakashi and him weren’t officially going out and Iruka wasn’t even sure he wanted to go out with him to start with, so it was perfectly right for this woman to woo the silver-haired man if she wanted to. Plus, Iruka knew that Kakashi’s heart already belonged to him. He truly had no reason to be jealous. He just thought that such an open display of interest coming from the dark-haired woman was not appropriate – and especially not in front of him and a room full of gossipers.

Looking up at the clock to see how much time was left before the end of his shift, Iruka could not help but send a glance toward the mission room entrance, and he looked just in time to see the kunoichi wave good bye at Kakashi as he walked away. His eyes lingered on the woman and for the first time, he had a good look at her.

When he had first seen her, he had thought she was pretty. But on a closer look, Iruka had to admit that ‘pretty’ obviously was not the most appropriate word to describe this woman. With her long, slender legs, her generous and firm breast, her smooth-looking skin and her beautiful amber eyes, she was definitely more ‘gorgeous’ than ‘pretty’. Somehow, the sight of her made Iruka’s stomach churn. He stared at her beautiful smile and could not help but wonder just how the Copy nin could find him attractive when such gorgeous woman were at his feet...

And then, the woman looked around and their eyes met. At once, her soft expression turned into a haughty one and she stared at him defiantly, as if daring him to even think he stood a chance against her. The eye contact lasted for only a second, yet the message couldn’t have been clearer and Iruka felt her disdainful gaze pierce his heart like an ice shred. With one last challenging look, the kunoichi turned on her heels and walked away, but Iruka’s eyes followed her as long as they could and as he watched her walk away, the chuunin felt anger and bitterness roar in his chest. His mind protested against the blast in his self-esteem that woman’s stare had caused; how dared she to look down on him like that? It was not because she was downright gorgeous that she had the right to act so disdainfully toward him! That double-faced bitch, as if she had a chance to win the Copy nin’s heart with such an attitude! No matter how beautiful she was, Kakashi would never fall for somehow so superficial and disdainful.

But no matter what he told himself, Iruka had to admit one thing: he was so out of this woman’s league it wasn’t even funny.

As he stared as the mission report pile in front of him, Iruka realized one thing. He was jealous. Thre was no point trying to deny it anymore, the sudden frustration and insecurity he felt at the sight of that woman could mean nothing else.

 _Jealous_. Jealous of someone who was trying to stir romantic feelings in the Sharigan user. Jealous at the sight of a potential rival... At that thought, Iruka suddenly felt peace wash over himself, as if a weight had been removed from his shoulders.

Because at the moment he had least expected it, he had finally found the answer he had been looking for.

As Iruka started distantly at the crowded street the black-haired kunoichi had disappeared into, he was far too conscious that all the gazes were now on him, every gossiper in the mission room trying to see through him. Obviously, they were wondering if the chuunin was going to accept defiantly the woman’s blatant challenge or if she had succeeded in shaking, if only temporarily, the brown-haired man’s confidence. But to the general consternation, the chuunin’s previously blank features slowly turned into a smile as he spaced out.

Yes, a _smile_.

And not the type of evil smile that every academy student in the village had learnt to fear. No; it was a content smile. The brown-haired man looked honestly _happy_.

With stupefaction, the whole room stared at the content-looking chuunin as he gathered his belongings, preparing himself to leave. Obviously, Iruka’s smile was throwing everybody off; how could he smile after getting so disdainfully challenged by the kunoichi? How could he look so content about having a beautiful and sexy rival? Did he lose his head or what? Iruka could almost feel those questions fill the air of the tense mission room as he closed his briefcase, feeling highly amused for some reason. In the end, they got what they had been looking for – hadn’t they all been trying to find something to gossip about? Hopefully, that was going to make hem busy for a while.

Ignoring the puzzled gazes on him, the smiling brown-haired chuunin headed for the door and quietly left the mission room under the stare of a dozen baffled nins, feeling strangely happy with his exit.

\--

“So, what’s going on?”

Iruka was walking down a small, quiet street alongside his favorite ex-student. The sun was sending its last beams of light on the Konoha village, making it look ablaze under the soft orange light. After they had eaten at a fairly good yakisoba restaurant in the 3rd district, Iruka had taken the agitated teen downtown for a walk, hoping that moving a bit would calm him down, or at least stimulate him to talk, something he had been looking very reluctant to do. But they had been walking for over one hour now and the blonde still did not look like he was about to open up and say what was obviously on his mind any time soon; he kept on frowning with irritation, ruminating silently to himself, exactly like he had done at the restaurant. Whatever what was bothering the teen, it was obviously important; Iruka couldn’t remember Naruto ever clamming up his anger like that and if the young man wouldn’t say what was bothering him already, Iruka was going to get it out of him one way or another. Because it was obvious the his ex-pupil needed to talk about it, even if he didn’t seem to want to – just the fact that he had asked to see Iruka with such haste was proving it.

At those words, Naruto unsurprisingly remained silent, staring darkly at the ground before his feet as if it was the cause of all his problems.

“Come on, I can see there’s something bothering you. What happened?”

Once again, the question was answered by a heavy silence and Iruka inwardly sighed. This was going to be a long night... But at least, the teen had not even tried to deny that there was something wrong – it was already a start, the chuunin thought with optimism.

But suddenly, Naruto looked up at him with an unreadable expression on his face.

“Iruka-sensei, can I spend the night at your place?”

Iruka stared at his ex-pupil, astounded by the unexpected request. “What?”

“Can I spend the night at your place,” Naruto repeated the question and the chuunin stared at him some more as he slowly figured out what that request meant.

When he didn’t immidiately answer, Naruto looked annoyed. “Can I, yes or no?”

“No,” came the flat answer and the blonde gaped disbelievingly at the academy teacher; obviously, he had not expected Iruka to refuse.

“What! Why?”

“Because avoiding Sasuke is not going to solve your problem,” Iruka answered severely and at those words, the teenager froze.

“What makes you think I’m avoiding him?” he asked defensively and Iruka rolled his eyes.

“Come on, it’s obvious. First you don’t want to eat at Ichiraku and then you bring me at the other end of the town to eat at some random restaurant that happens to be very far away from your place, Ichiraku, the mission room, your ususal training spot and the Uchiha compound. And to top it off, you want to stay at my place for the night – something somewhat suspect for a sixteen year-old.”

That enumaration did nothing to improve the young man’s mood, his face scowling darkly at the street below his feet. He angrily kicked a stone in his way but once again said nothing.

“Won’t you tell me already what’s going on? I can’t help you if you clam up like that.”

At those words, Naruto seemed to calm down a bit, looking slightly shameful. He opened his mouth to speak, but then he grimaced and closed it again, looking bitter. Then, he started to speak with agitation.

“You want to know what’s going on? Well, I don’t know what’s going on. I have no _freaking_ idea what’s going on! Everything’s so messed up in my head... And that’s _Sasuke’s_ fault! I told him I wanted things to be simple, but he had to complicate everything!”

“Nothing’s simple, Naruto,” Iruka sighed truthfully, and the teen looked put down.

“... He’s still a jerk.” the blonde mumbled childishly.

“Who’s a jerk?”

Both men turned around, but it was futile – they both knew very well to whom that low, sarcastic voice belonged. And sure enough, Uchiha Sasuke was standing a few feet behind them; only, the amused smirk that usually graced his handsome face when he made that kind of comment was strangely absent. Instead, the Uchiha heir was staring at them with cool anger, and Iruka knew when he saw those cold, angry eyes that things were going to get ugly. As to prove him right, Naruto stiffened beside him at the sight of his best friend and rival, his whole being suddenly radiating hatred. They stared at each other for a short while, but then Naruto turned on his heel and started to walk away. Before he could make more than three steps, the raven-haired teen was beside him, grabbing his arm forcefully.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

His voice was a mere whisper, cool and sharp, and Iruka then realized that the Uchiha was not just angry, he was downright _pissed_. The blonde slowly turned his head around and stared at Sasuke dangerously, the air around him crackling with chakra aggressively, but the teenager did not look impressed. Iruka started to back away, anticipating the heated confrontation that was about to take place; he did not do so because he was scared or nervous, but rather to let more space for the two teens to settle their disagreement their way. Such a gesture could have seemed strange to someone who wasn’t familiar with the twisted relationship the two young man shared, but Iruka knew that the only way for them to make up was to fight – verbally and/or physically – until either exhaustion or the intervention of the Hokage herself. Whichever happened first.

“Let me go,” Naruto growled dangerously, but Sasuke’s grip on his best friend’s harm seemed only to tighten.

“Like hell I will,” the raven-haired man hissed angrily, “I’ve been running through the town looking for you for _two fuckin’_ days.”

“Then get the clue already and leave me alone!”

“Dammit Naruto, I already said I was sorry! What do you want? That I buy you flowers and chocolates?! That I beg on my knees?!” Sasuke snarled angrily and the teen remained silent, looking angry after himself for not being able to answer his rival’s question. Iruka stared at the scene with mild surprise; their row was taking a direction he had not expected. Flowers and chocolates? What was the meaning of this?

“I don’t even understand why you’re making such a scene! You’re overreacting,” the teen had said with annoyance and the words were not even out of his mouth, Iruka knew he shouldn’t have said that.

“Overreacting? You say I’m OVERREACTING?!” Naruto burst out, completely out of himself, pulling himself out of the other teenager’s grip.

“Damn yes you are!” Sasuke shot back angrily, his voice slowly raising.

“Well if you hadn’t been such a complete inconsiderate _ass_ to start with, it wouldn’t have even happened!”

“I-already-said-I-was-sorry,” Sasuke muttered between clenched teeth, obviously trying to remain cool and controlled.

“ _Then stop being an ass and be nice for once!_ ” Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs.

“ _Nice?!_ I WAS nice!” The raven-haired teen yelled back, self-control completely forgotten.

“Oh you were?!”

“Yes, I was!”

“You goddamned _molested_ me!” the blonde shrieked angrily and Iruka froze, staring at the teens blankly. Molested?! Whoa-! So they were...?

In front of Naruto, Sasuke straightened indignantly. “ _Molested you_?! I barely touched you! I put my freaking hand on your _knee_! And then the next thing I knew, I had your fist in my face! _You_ were the one who said you were okay with this!” he accused Naruto sharply and the blonde looked upset to be reminded. From his corner, Iruka stared at the shouting match with bewildered eyes, barely believing his ears. Naruto and Sasuke, doing... these kind of things already?!

“Yes, I said I was!” he said defensely, “But-but not so fast!”

“ _Not so fast?!_ I touched your fucking _knee_ , I didn’t grab your _ass_! Stop acting like a scared virgin, for God’s sake!”

Naruto took a step back, as if he had been hit, and blushed furiously.

“Like you aren’t a virgin yourself, teme!” The blonde shot back angrily and it was Sasuke’s turn to flush with anger and embarrassment, his pale cheeks turning into an interesting shade of pink.

“Shut up,” he hissed venomously.

“Oooh, did I hit a nerve?!” Naruto taunted the other teen with triumph. “Would the prodigy Uchiha Sasuke be a mere hormonal, inexperienced teenager in the end? Falling off your fucking high up now, aren’t you?!”

“I said _SHUT UP!”_

“Would you guys please find yourself a room?”

That last quiet sentence startled the three men; they all had been so engrossed with the row that they had failed to notice that they was a newcomer standing a few feet away from them and listening to them intently. At once, both teenagers’ and Iruka heads snapped around to where the voice was coming from, and it was with surprise that they all stared at a very bored-looking Hatake Kakashi slouching nonchalantly against a nearby wall.

“I hope you realize that you can be heard up to the 6th district. Not exactly the best way to keep a relationship secret, if you want my advise.”

That last sentence seemed to hit the two angry teenagers, who suddenly looked highly self-conscious and mortified of their previous outburst. While Naruto’s face blanched comically at the realization, the raven-haired young man just froze on the spot, looking strangely twitchy and Iruka had the distinct feeling that Sasuke was contemplating how many people he would have to kill to eliminate everyone who had overheard their embarrassing argument. He must have come to the conclusion that they were too many because he suddenly frowned and took Naruto’s wrist into his hand firmly and quickly walked away, pulling a mortified and mildly reluctant-looking Naruto behind him. Iruka watched them quickly disappearing into the darkening streets of Konoha, feeling still bewildered by the whole scene that just took place under his eyes. When Naruto had asked to see him, he had thought he was prepared to hear anything, but obviously he had not been prepared to _this_. Naruto going out with Sasuke... the chuunin had thought of it as a possibility, but he had imagined that it wouldn’t happen before another couple years – they were still too young, weren’t they?

But Iruka had to admit that no, they were not too young for this. They were sixteen year-old; at that age, more than half of their graduation class were into serious relationship or had had sex experiences, or both. No, they were definitely at the right age for doing such experimentations. Yet the brown-haired man could not help but feel strangely uneasy with the notion of the two rivals doing such things together. Maybe his uneasiness was due to his own lack of experience in that field; knowing that Naruto, who he had taught when he was still a kid, was already experimenting with Sasuke made him even more painfully self-conscious of the fact that he had never ‘experimented’ himself. That thought left him with a strange insecure feeling he had never quite felt before and that scared him more than anything else. Especially in the light of his evolving relationship with Kakashi-sensei...

Iruka chased those treacherous thoughts away; those were not things he would need to think about before a while.

Shaking himself out of his reverie, Iruka’s eyes went to the Copy nin standing a few feet away from him. To his surprise, the jounin was staring at the place where his students had disappeared into, a strange nostalgic glint in his uncovered eye. Realizing he was being stared at, Kakashi’s attention went to the chuunin and his eye curved up into a fake smile.

“They’ve grown a lot, haven’t they?”

That small but true sentence brought a nostalgic and mildly sad smile to the brown-haired man’s lips. “Indeed, they have,” he agreed quietly. They stared at each other for a while, an easy silence stretching between them, and then Iruka slowly started to walk away. And just as he had thought he would, Hatake Kakashi quietly joined him and they started walking together in the mostly deserted and darkening streets of Konoha. As they walked, neither of them spoke for a long while – they shared an easy, companionable silence and were content just to walk side by side and enjoy each other presence. And it only strengthened Iruka’s resolve.

His thoughts drifting back to the alley the had just left, Iruka chuckled quietly and the silver-haired man looked up at him curiously.

“Doesn’t it seem a bit unreal?”

“What?”

“Sasuke and Naruto,” the chuunin explained simply and Kakashi laughed quietly.

“I know what you mean. I can’t say I haven’t seen it coming – with Sasuke throwing those jealous tantrums around, the clues were hard to miss. Yet I can’t get used to the idea of the two of them going out together.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

“But they are at that age already, aren’t they?”

“I guess so. They’re not genins anymore...” Iruka sighed. “Sometimes I wish they still would be.”

“So do I. At least, it would be easier to stop Sakura from skinning alive Naruto when she learns the news.”

Kakashi had said the last sentence on a whiny voice, but his whine was ruined by the obvious amusement hidden behind those words and Iruka laughed.

“You mean Sakura AND the rest of Sasuke’s fanclub.”

“Oh no I don’t. I like living too much to mess with those; Naruto will be on his own for that one.”

“What a courageous and caring team leader you are,” Iruka smirked and the jounin shot him mock annoyed look. Then, he sighed a bit sadly.

“I just hope their relationship will not become as public as ‘ours’. I wouldn’t want them to got through what you had to in the past weeks,” the jounin said very quietly, his words barely hiding the unspoken helplessness and culpability he felt and Iruka felt his heart beating faster in his chest.

“You shouldn’t worry about me,” the chuunin answered as quietly, “I’m stronger than that.”

“I know.”

Both men then came to an halt as they reached Iruka’s apartment building. Iruka couldn’t believe he was already home – he felt like they had barely walked more than ten minutes, but he knew they must have been walking for over half an hour. Awkwardly, the two men stared at each. In front of him, the jounin seemed to grow more hesitant and embarrassed by the second and it was not without some amusement and mild annoyance that Iruka watched the silver-haired man stare at the dust bin over his right shoulder nervously. But Iruka wasn’t nervous. In fact, he felt abnormally calm and serene – he couldn’t quite tell if it was because he now knew what he wanted or because he felt right about it, but it didn’t matter much to him anymore.

“It’s a pretty night, isn’t it?” Kakashi finally said in an attempt to sound casual, and Iruka nodded silently. And then, there was a shy silence.

“So...” Iruka said after a while, “Do you plan on asking me out anytime soon?”

With some amusement, Iruka thought he couldn’t have gotten a funnier reaction out of the man. The jounin’s visible eye widened so much it seemed to be about to pop out of its socket as he gaped blankly at Iruka. Then, his mostly hidden face seemed to set into fire as he blushed furiously and he looked down at the chuunin’s vest, fidgeting nervously in an hilarious imitation of a shy twelve years-old girl asking out her long-time crush.

“Y-Yes! I mean - Uh, that is to say... If you want, we could, er... eat out together... or something,” Kakashi babbled nervously, “O-or maybe we could... go se a movie if you prefer – or, or just hang out, really-”

Iruka never found out what the Copy nin was about to add because he couldn’t hold his amusement in anymore and burst out laughing, his powerful laugh echoing through the silent and deserted street. Kakashi’s shoulders fell and he gaped at the laughing chuunin in such a distraught way that the brown-haired man forced himself to stop laughing.

“Sorry for that,” he apologized, his lips still twiching with amusement, “but you were just so _–cute-_ , I couldn’t help it.”

At the open teasing, the silver-haired man seemed to relax a bit, but at the same time, he looked mildly annoyed.

“I’m _not_ cute,” the jounin said in such a sulky way that Iruka could not help but grin again.

“Uh-uh.”

“I’ll have you know that I’m very manly.”

“Of course.”

“And I was _not_ stuttering like some lovesick ten year-old,” Kakashi added defensively with the same sulky voice, “That was _manly_ stuttering. It’s completely different.”

“Obviously.”

There was a short silent and Iruka was under the impression that the sulking jounin wanted to bang his head against the nearest wall for making such a pathetic exhibit of his lack of social skills and embarrassment in front of his crush. It made the chuunin smile. To think that only a week ago, the thought of him having so much influence on the Copy nin was scaring him... Now, the only feeling the sight of the hesitant and nervous Sharigan user stirred in him was fond amusement. When had he grown so fond of Kakashi-sensei?

At that precise moment, Iruka knew that if he did not watch himself, he would end up falling in love for the silver-haired man. But it didn’t matter anymore – he had already made his mind about it.

“I’m free on Sunday night; let’s meet here at five – and do not be late,” he said simply to a mildly bemused-looking jounin.

“O-okay.”

“Great,” Iruka answered warmly, flashing his brightest smile to the ex-anbu before turning around and walking to his doorstep. As he fished his keys out of his pockets and opened the door, the chuunin could feel Kakashi staring at him from the place when he had left him, obviously stunned by the turn out of their weird discussion. As he opened the door, Iruka looked back at the astounded jounin.

“So, do you want to honor my humble apartment with your manly presence for a cup of tea?”

From afar, Iruka could see the jounin’s mask stretch into what he could guess was a wide, happy smile and his low, rich voice broke the silence of the quiet evening.

“I would love to.”

 

The End.


	13. Epilogue

Kurenai was quietly looking for a place to set the huge punch bowl she was holding on the already overcrowded with food tables when her friend Hanako came out of the kitchen with a bowl of pretzels and a huge salad - she frowned, wondering how she was supposed to put all that food on such ridiculously small tables. She couldn’t believe those were the longest tables Asuma had found – obviously, he had not looked hard enough. Never ask a man to do something you can do yourself, she mentally noted.

“Asuma, I think we’ll need another table - those ones aren’t big enough,” she said half-reproachfully to her boyfriend, who had the nerve to look exasperated.

“The tables are perfect. It’s you who made far too much food - look at all this stuff, there is enough food to feed half of the village here,” the beared man said, waving his arms at the table for good mesure, “I thought we were supposed to have a small party to celebrate Raidou’s promotion!”

“We are!” the kunoichi replied crossly. “And there is _not_ too much food, the tables are too small. So make yourself useful for once and find another table before the guests start arriving. _Pronto_.”

Asuma rolled his eyes but complied to his girlfriend demand; he knew better than to twart her when she was in that kind of mood. As he left, Kurenai returned to the kitchen to put down the punch bowl and busied herself with some last-minute decorations, her friend following her with an amused smirk.

“You had him well-trained.”

“Not well enough yet, it seems,” the jounin mumbled darkly as she rearraged for the nineth time the flower bouquet and Hanako laughed.

“By the way, who are we having over?”

At the thought of her guests, Kurenai’s face lightened. “Well, of course there’s the Yamanaka and the Namida - couldn’t really not invite them, couldn’t we?”

“Indeed.”

“And then there’s the Kimigo, Yao Ishare, Genma, Izumi and Kotetsu, that blondie working at the gate, what’s her name again - oh yeah, Abi - Wusha Okyu, Hudana Kao...” the red-eyed female counted on her fingers, frowning.

“You invited Jisha and his fiancée, didn’t you?”

“Of course. Them, and the Guymacho - I don’t know them very well, but they are friends of Raidou’s. Nishimika Yuuhe is coming as well; she just got dumped, I thought she could do with a little fun. Oh, and I was almost forgetting - Hatake Kakashi and Umino Iruka will be there as well.”

“WHAT! Kakashi and Iruka are coming?!” Hanako asked with incredulous glee. “Why didn’t you say it earlier!?”

Kurenai smirked somewhat smugly to her flower bouquet. “I know; those two don’t go out much – at first I couldn’t believe it when Asuma told me he talked them into coming. But apparently they’re good friends of Raidou’s and Iruka didn’t want to miss the party, so Kakashi decided to tag along. But I didn’t want to spread the news – we would have ended up with a bunch of uninvited guests and that’s something Asuma and me wanted to avoid at all cost...” the jounin trailed on a softer tone, and by the way she avoided her best friend’s eyes, Hanako guessed that Kurenai’s desire to protect the intimacy of Konoha’s most famous couple was more due to her boyfriend insistence than to anything else. But honestly, who could blame her? Hanako could only imagine how much it had cost the compulsive party organizer to keep that piece of information for herself! Having Kakashi and Iruka coming to a party _together_ , that was unheard of!

“This is great! It’s about time these two start to socialize and go out a bit, if you want my advise.”

“Of course. But you’ve got to understand them. With the whole village constantly prying into their relationship, it’s only natural for those two to be a little secretive and seek privacy.”

“I totally agree. What they had to go through is really horrible, when you think about it,” Hanako said disapprovingly, and her red-eyed friend nodded vigorously. “With the whole village knowing about them...!”

“You know that there are still people giving them disgusted looks and making up scandalous stories about them? They really have it hard, especially since they are both men. You’d think that people would be more open-minded, or at least keep their disapprovement to themselves!”

“My thought exactly. And it’s not like they go out of their way to annoy or shock people - on the opposite, they are quite discreet about their relationship, given the situation. They never talk about it and they don’t even act like a couple in public. If it wasn’t for the fact that half of the village seems to have stalked them on a date at least once, I’d never believe those two are actually going out together.”

“I personally think that’s what make them such a lovely couple,” Kurenai said with conviction, and her friend looked mildly puzzled. “I mean, have you seen them when they are together? They just walk side by side silently, looking calm and content just to be together... As if they don’t even feel the need to talk. I think it’s just so romantic...”

Kurenai sighed enviously and her best friend grimaced; obviously, she did not agree with the red-eyed jounin’s idea of romanticism.

“Well you might find it romantic, but I think it’s... plain strange. The way they act around each other, I mean. Sometimes I get the feeling that they’re not truly happy to be together.” The jounin rolled her eyes.

“You’re saying that because they’re private and don’t grope each other in broad daylight,” she replied on a teasingly reproachful tone. “It’s not because they’re not acting like horny rabbits and sucking on each other’s tongue in the mission room that they’re not happy. I’ll let you know that there are more subtle ways to be happy and it’s not because you never shared this kind of deep bond with someone and always acted like a horny rabbit yourself that everybody does.”

“Hey,” the brown-haired kunoichi protested playfully, “I went out with Yoyaku, don’t you remember?”

“Yeah, and how long did it last? Two? Three weeks?”

“Five!”

“Which proves my point: horny couples never last long.”

“Maybe, but I can’t help thinking that these two are gonna break up soon enough.”

“You said that when they started dating, don’t you remember? You said that they wouldn’t tough longer than two weeks. And look at them – they’ve been together for three months now and they’re doing fine. You’re the one who’s too pessimist!”

“Maybe.”

Just then, Asuma arrived with a pliable table – borrowed from the neighbors, he explained to the two kunoichi, but they were not even listening. As soon as the table arrived, they took over the beared man and set it against the dinning room wall, quickly covering it with a white tablecloth and filling it with plates and bowls full of food.

As she was setting down the punch bowl on the table, Hanako suddenly came to an alt.

“Kurenai, didn’t you say you’ve invited Genma?” she asked slowly, looking mildly puzzled and anxious.

“Yes, I did.”

“But you invited Iruka.”

“Uh-un.”

“You invited Genma _and_   Iruka?” the brown-haired kunoichi asked incredulously, staring at her placid friend as if she had grown a second head.

“Yes I did, but I never said Genma was going to come,” the woman answered playfully. “I doubt he will – he may be carefree, but he’s got enough sense of self-preservation to avoid our little chuunin. Or at least, he’s going to avoid him now after what happened!” They both burst out laughing as they settled the last bowl on the already crowded table.

“He just got out of the hospital, didn’t he?”

“Yesterday morning.”

“Does he still have those red blotches?” Hanako asked with amusement and Kurenai smirked.

“No, but I heard he still has pimples though.”

 

\--

 

“Say, why are we going again?”

From the bathroom where he was preparing himself, Iruka rolled his eyes with mild amusement. If the sulking jounin hadn’t asked that question twelve times already, he hadn’t asked it once. Sometimes Iruka thought that his boyfriend was too much of an ermit. They both knew they were going to have a great time at Kurenai’s – everybody always had a great time at Kurenai’s, she was too much of an obsessive party organizer to allow people to be bored – but Kakashi didn’t want to leave the comfort of his boyfriend’s small but welcoming living room nonetheless. As if attending to this party would require from him a superhuman effort. Iruka snorted at the thought.

“We’re going first) to celebrate Raidou’s promotion, second) to have fun with friends we haven’t seen in a while and third) to give those gossipers something to talk about so that they leave us alone for the rest of the week,” Iruka enumerated from the bathroom doorway, watching from afar his boyfriend, who was currently sloutched on the couch reading his newest book, sulking in his nice civilian clothes.

“Well, I’d rather stay home with you, a cup of tea and a good book.”

“Then stay here. That way, you’ll miss a great time, free food and your lovely boyfriend,” Iruka told him simply as he returned into the bathroom to stare at his reflexion and decide wether of not he was going to wear that green pullover. He had worn it the last time he had come at Kurenai and she had told him green was not a color that suited him well... Oh, well. Kurenai aesthetic senses could be screwed.

“D’you think Genma’s going to come?” Iruka suddenly asked as he left the bathroom and walked to the living room. Kakashi looked up from his book, looking bored.

“After what you’ve done to him?”

Iruka chuckled under his breath as he placed himself behind the couch and leaned on it, snatching his lover’s book from his hands. “Why do I sense some reproach in that voice? A couple of pimples never killed anyone.”

“No, but don’t you think you went a little overboard with the itching powder?”

“No, not really.”

“ _AND_ the red ant colony?”

“... well, okay, _maybe_   I went a little too far...”

“My point exactly.”

“But he had it coming.”

The jounin didn’t say anything and by the nonchalant gaze he was sending to his lover, Iruka knew that he didn’t quite agree with him but didn’t think of the whole issue as important enough to bother arguing over it. That thought made the chuunin smile: when had he started to know the Copy nin well enough to be able to read through him just by looking into his eyes? But it was true that Kakashi had pretty expressive eyes… When you knew how to read them, of course. Even now that he was used to his boyfriend uncovered face, he still continued to look into the man’s eyes to know what he was really thinking.

Iruka remembered just how embarrassed he had been – they both had been – when Kakashi had first taken down his mask in his presence. Feeling embarrassed and awkward, they had both stared away and tried to fake being busy doing something else, making up excuses just to not look at each other while pretending there was nothing special going on. Like two nervous and blushing pre-teen who had just held hands minutes ago and where trying to pretend they had not. After a few minutes, they had both been quite relieved when the silver-haired man had decided to put his mask back on, and they had gone back with their occupations like nothing had happened. Except that that night, Iruka had not been able to sleep well, his mind plagued with stolen glances of a beautiful, pale, delicate yet manly face that stirred odd feelings in him. As the days passed, they gradually got used to his new intimacy they shared and the brown-haired man soon started to like Kakashi’s face, to like his straight nose and thin lips that twisted into an amused smirk so often, and his small and almost disturbingly white teeth that shone so radiantly when the man smiled and laughed. And soon enough, when Iruka went to bed, before he started to dose off, his mind would be filled with thoughts of Kakashi’s warm and powerful laugh combined with images of the jounin’s dazzling smile, and a fond warmth would wash over him as he fell asleep.

Before he even knew it, Iruka woke up one morning to realize that he was in love. He had known it would probably happen one day or another, but he still felt rather uneasy with the idea of his life depending so much so suddenly on the silver-haired jounin’s presence. Depending on his warm smile, on the way the he had to blush so cutely or the way Iruka’s heart seemed to want to burst when he laughed. Depending on their light discussions late at night over a cup of coffee and on the faint shiver that went up his spine when he felt the jounin’s agile fingers lightly brushing against his whenever Kakashi handed in his mission report or helped him to wash the dishes. But whenever he met with Kakashi again, his doubts and fears of abandoning himself to his feelings melted like snow under the April’s sun and before long, the academy teacher realized that he had, in fact, long allowed the man in.

It was soon after that realization drew on the chuunin that they had shared their first kiss. Iruka snorted with fond amusement at the thought. He remembered only too well just how much he had panicked when he had first seen Kakashi’s nervous and slightly blushing face slowly approach his, his eyes hesitantly asking for the chuunin’s permission. When he had realized what was going on, the brown-haired man had frozen on the spot like the 28 year-old scared virgin he was, his panicking brain automatically supplying to him four different escape routes, as if he were fighting an enemy ninja on the field rather than sitting on his couch with his lover. But although he had been nervous as hell at the thought of having his first kiss, Iruka had felt a rush of curiosity along with the tension-induced adrenalin flowing through his veins. So he had stayed still, caught between his desire to flee and his new-found curiousness and Kakashi, who took his boyfriend’s stillness for a yes, had slowly closed the distance between them and shyly kissed him. Their lips had merely brushed against each others, but the chuunin had felt so aware of the short contact that his whole body had flushed, an electric jolt spread from the root of his hair to his curling toes at the sensation of his lover’s lips on his. 

Feeling more confident after Iruka’s lack of protestation, the Copy nin had kissed him again, his lips lingering on the chuunin’s longer and Iruka, feeling ecstatic from the rush of adrenalin and the whole new sensations, had slowly found himself hesitantly kissing back the man. As their kisses slowly became more confident, the brown-haired man became overly conscious of his suddenly very sensitive body and all those new sensations spreading through it. He could feel with an intensity and a sharpness he had never experienced before the texture of the jounin’s warm and humid lips against his, the warm pressure of his wide and calloused hand cupping gently the side of his face and of his other hand firmly gripping his right hip over his t-shirt, these contacts making him feel so warm he felt as if their skin would melt together. He had been also overly aware of their knees rubbing against each other and of his own hands hesitantly gripping at the jounin’s shirt, the feeling of Kakashi’s wide, warm and muscled back under the shirt he was clutching making his already pounding heart speed up in his chest.

And all too soon, it was over. His boyfriend’s wonderful lips were gone and the skin where his strong hands had been seconds ago prickled longingly at the sudden lack of warmth. Feeling slightly dizzy and flushed from their first kiss, both men had stared at each other awkwardly for a long while, not knowing what they were supposed to do after their first make-out session. Maybe it was because of the adrenalin and nervousness they both felt crashing into them now that it was finally over, or maybe it was just because of the sheer irony and strangeness of the whole situation, but they had then both started to laugh.

Whatever people are supposed to do after their first make-out session, Iruka was quite sure laughing was not even in the top ten list. But then again, they had never claimed to be a normal couple anyway. How could they be, when you think about the way they ended up dating each other?

Feeling a rush of affection for his lover at the thought, Iruka bent forward and loosely wrapped his arms around the Copy nin’s neck, sweetly kissing his lover’s unruly hair. The jounin looked up playfully at his boyfriend, his lips turning into another of his sarcastic yet warm smirk.

“What was that for?”

Iruka pretended to look offended. “What do you mean, what was that for? Do I need a reason to kiss my boyfriend now?”

“Don’t pretend: I know what you’re trying to do.”

“Oh, and what am I trying to do?”

“You’re trying to bribe me into leaving this comfortable couch and this wonderful book to go to that party of yours,” he explained as if it was the most obvious thing of the world. Then, his eyes sparkled playfully and his smirk turned into a lecherous leer. “But if you want to convince me to come with you, you’re gonna need to do a lot _more_ than just kissing me.”

Not at all embarrassed, Iruka merely smirked back at his perverted boyfriend. “Then, I guess you’re gonna stay here. You can always read your entire porn collection to ‘comfort’ you while I’m out having fun.”

“What a cruel boyfriend you are,” the jounin pouted like a child who had been denied a huge lollipop and Iruka chuckled.

In spite of what most people thought and what he let on, Kakashi was not a horny man. Perverted? Most definitely. But horny? Not really. It might seem paradoxical to most people, but Iruka had a pretty good theory to explain it. A theory that could be summed up to two words: massive desensitization.

Over the time, he had affectionately nicknamed it the ‘addicted porn reader syndrome’. Not that he would admit it to anyone – as a teacher, he was supposed to disapprove of such reading habits, not to feel some sort of fondness for it because he had a sexy, perverted porn-addicted lover. _Okay_ , he *may* have been a bit lax about the whole reading porn in public issue, but everyone had to make compromises, right? And, unlike what Kakashi had been teasingly pretending for a month or so, it was not because he had given up on lecturing his boyfriend about his bad reading habits that it meant he was getting smitten into pornography and reading Icha Icha when nobody’s looking. He was merely being tolerant and _no_ , his boyfriend perversity was _not_ starting to rub on him.

But behind the appearances, Iruka knew perfectly well that his lover offers to enlighten him about what he was missing out not reading the Icha Icha series were only teasings and were not truly serious – as it had been previously exposed, Hatake kakashi was a pervert, but not a horny one. They had been together for three months already, and _not even once_ Kakashi had put pressure on Iruka for their relationship to get bolder. Not once a tentative hand had hazarded itself to some unwelcoming area of his body or had the jounin tried to talk him into doing more than just having loving kisses sessions on the couch. Something Iruka was truly glad for, because although he loved sharing increasingly heated kisses with the man, he still wasn’t sure he was ready to go further yet. The simple thought of sex was sometimes enough to make him fell strangely anxious and uncomfortable, so he was glad that his boyfriend was perverted instead of horny – although he was petty sure he would change his mind once they started to actually get some... But that wasn’t something he worried too much about for the time being. At any rate, the brown-haired man liked to think that he was pretty open-minded, so he guessed he could deal with whatever embarrassing and/or possibly weird kinks his lover might have. And he guessed that experimenting was not such a bad thing, because no matter what they would do, Iruka knew his boyfriend would never hurt him and would always respect him. So… so _why not?_

But there was one thing Umino Iruka was adamant about. He would ride, be ridden, be cuffed, be gagged, have chocolate and maple syrup all over his body, play the teacher, do it on the dining table – hell, he would even wear a damn school girl uniform and say ‘spank me sensei’ if that was what turned Kakashi on. But the silver-haired man was better not even _consider_ doing anything on the academy grounds. It was not even an option.

But that would not happen. Kakashi knew better. Or at least, he knew better than to even hope Iruka was going to give in to such a sick fantasy.

Iruka’s chain of thoughts was cut by a sudden question of his lover, who was looking looking up at him with mildly amused eyes.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Huh?"

“You were zoning out. What were you thinking about?”

Iruka wisely decided to ignore the tiny suicidal and frivolous part of his mind that was urging him to talk about the school girl uniform and the maple syrup.

Instead, he smirked and said teasingly: “I was thinking about how great it was to have a boyfriend who spends most of his time trying to talk me into his bed but would never actually try to jump me.”

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at him with amusement. “Is that a complain or a request?”

“In your dreams, pervert,” Iruka answered back, shuffling his already unruly lover’s hair fondly.

“Hey,” the jounin whined playfully, “what’s wrong with being a pervert? I like being a pervert.”

“Yes, I know you do.”

“Being a pervert is better than being a jerk. Or a sadist. Or a horny teenager, _unlike_ some people we know.”

Iruka scolded at the teasing silver-haired man. “They’re not-”

“Yes, they are. They’re sixteen year-old inexperienced, confused, hormon-laden horny brats.”

The chuunin opened his mouth to argue with his boyfriend, but soon closed it. As much as it pained him to admit it, the silver-haired man was right: Sasuke and Naruto **_were_** horny teenagers. But Iruka didn’t like to see things under such a crude light: his ex-students’ arguments and issues were due to far more complex causes than just horniness. Although Iruka guessed that if one wanted to explain really quickly why the village was graced at least once a week by a formidable outburst coming generally from the Uchiha compound…  

Not that Iruka was worried about it. Given their past history and personalities, occasional rows were pretty much unavoidable. They were, after all, both proud, stubborn and competitive growing young men who had an history of self-esteem issues caused by a sad, lonely and loveless childhood and who wanted to be respected and recognized for their worth above all. And to top it off, they were inexperienced, anxious and horny teenagers, as Kakashi had crudely but truthfully put it. A very explosive mix, to put it mildly.

But except for their weekly rows, they got along most of the time and made a fine couple – an explosive, unpredictable and anxiously tentative couple, but a fine couple nonetheless. The academy teacher always smiled whenever he saw them walking together in the streets of Konoha: they completed each other in so many ways that whatever happened, he knew they would find a way to make things work together.

Perhaps because people had been so busy gossiping about Iruka and Kakashi’s about two week old official relationship, the news of Sasuke’s relationship with Naruto nearly went unnoticed. Well, as unnoticed as it could be with Sasuke’s fanclub – there were no public destruction and Naruto had to hide at Sasuke’s for only three days before the angry fangirls, Sakura at their head, gave up on skinning him alive for taking away their precious Uchiha heir and grudgingly went back to their daily life. Well, they pretty much gave up all hopes of ever getting some beating up done when Sasuke, after being stuck in his own house for three days, warned them that if anybody was to even touch one of his boyfriend hair, he would personally make sure that person suffered the most horrible and painful death ever heard of – and knowing the character, it was not an empty thread. And the fact that the Hokage soon after personally threatened to make them all become her personal assistants if they were to continue to harass Naruto probably helped a lot too. Actually, Iruka wasn’t sure which thread had actually managed to scare them away. Kakashi made no secret he thought that it was the possibility of having to hide the Hokage’s booze from her on daily basis that did it though.

Ever since, the two teenagers could have been seen together nearly everywhere they went – which was not that much of a change, when Iruka thought about it. Actually, he knew from Naruto that nothing had changed much in their relationship - except for the fact that they now spent their evenings together kissing the daylight out of each other. Which was more information about his ex-students’ sex life than he actually was ready to process. But it was not as if he could turn Naruto down when the blonde burst his way in his apartment, his face twisted in a mix and indignant anger, insecurity and helplessness, obviously looking for guidance. Of course, Iruka honestly wanted to help and guide the teenager, and was doing his best to come up with good pieces of advice that would help Naruto’s first relationship to blossom. But when the blonde young man had showed up one night nearly one month and half ago and told him hysterically about how Sasuke had groped him while they were snuggling on the couch, the academy teacher had felt a bit helpless about what he was supposed to say to the blonde. In fact, he had truly felt helpless when, after finally calming down a bit, Naruto had told him that back then, he had liked being groped and did not know what to do about it because he didn’t want to be, as he had gracefully put it, “Sasuke’s bitch”.

Iruka hadn’t known what to say to his ex-student as he understood only too well Naruto’s apprehension: he himself wasn’t feeling that great with the thought of being dominated by Kakashi, no matter how experienced, patient and loving the jounin probably was in bed. A man had his pride, and Naruto certainly had more of it than your average young male. That, and he was stubborn. But the true problem was that Sasuke and Naruto were _both_ proud and stubborn, and the issue of who would be the “submissive one”, no matter how superficial it truly was, soon became the most important source of tension and outbursts between the two young insecure yet horny lovers.

Tired of the constant confrontations between his two students and teammates and of the growing helplessness of his lover, Kakashi had decided to openly confront the two teens about it three weeks ago. He had locked himself with them in Iruka’s house and scolded them about how stupid it was for them to see sex as a competition rather than a way of expressing love and trust and told them that being ‘dominant’ or ‘submissive’ truly didn’t matter when you trusted and cared for each other – and if it damn still made them uneasy, then they could just play heads or tails to decide who would be on top for the first round and then switch positions the next time. Which shocked the teens into a shy and mildly shameful silence. Hell, it shocked Iruka into silence as well; he almost felt bad for feeling anxious about being topped by his lover. Almost.

Ever since that day, Sasuke and Naruto’s relationship had been less tense – of course, they still fought once in a while, but not about sex anymore. Naruto had gradually stopped to come rushing for Iruka’s guidance whenever the Uchiha heir made a move at him, something the chuunin couldn’t help but feel guiltily glad for. Although he had to admit, he sometimes wondered how things were progressing between the two young men. But he would never dare to ask such an intimate question to his favourite ex-student.

“Admit it,” his lover suddenly drawled.

“Admit what?”

“That you’re curious about who’s gonna let the other fuck him first.”

“Kakashi!” the brown-haired man growled indignantly, “It’s about your _students_ you are talking!”

“So? Why couldn’t I be curious because they’re my students? It’s not like I said I’d like to watch,” the jounin said on a bored tone. Then, his face shifted into a thoughtful expression. “Well, I actually might…”

“You’re sick.”

“Okay. Then tell me that you _honestly_  are not curious at all about who’s going to top the other first.”

Iruka gaped silently at the smug-looking Kakashi, feeling growingly annoyed at his lover for being right and at himself for not being able to lie decently when he really wanted to.

“… I hate you.”

Chuckling, the jounin patted his irritated boyfriend shoulder. “I’m gonna save you the trouble to find out by yourself then. It’s gonna be Sasuke. Or maybe it already had been – it’s hard to tell, but I’m pretty sure they haven’t gone this far yet.”

Iruka arched an annoyed eyebrow at his lover. “And what makes you so confident about it?”

“Because Sasuke has that ‘I’m gonna sacrifice myself’ attitude about pretty much everything he cares about – that, and the fact that he’s the one in the couple who has enough gust to actually do it. Takes a lot of guts to deliberately accept to be submissive and dominated by someone else.”

“…I guess,” Iruka answered quietly, not really knowing what he was supposed to think of such a declaration.

The Copy nin eyed his thoughtful lover silently for a while. Then, he sighed and got up, covering his mask over his naked face.

“So. Are we going to that party or not? We’re running late.”

Smirking, Iruka followed the silver-haired to the small apartment’s entrance, where they both started putting on their coats. “Oh? So you decided to come in the end?”

“Don’t make me change my mind about it,” the jounin warned teasingly and Iruka laughed lightly as he locked his front door behind them.

“I don’t want to mean, but I knew you would come when you showed up with civilian clothes tonight.”

“Am I so easy to read?” the jounin asked poutingly.

“Un uh.”

“Got to do something about it.”

“Definitely.”

A small soft smile on their lips, both men quietly set off, walking side by side in silence. The moon was lightening the street under their feet with its soft glowing light and Iruka found himself staring at the nearly full moon shining prettily in the sky. As they walked, the chuunin suddenly felt incredibly aware of just how much he felt at ease with the Sharigan user. Ever since they had started going out, his life has changed so much, but somehow Iruka couldn’t find it in him to miss his previous existence. To miss the lonely nights spent grading homework and the meals he would always prepare and eat alone. To miss telling himself that he as long as he had his job and his students, nothing else mattered. He had long accepted Kakashi as a part of his life and knew pretty well that even if he wanted to, he would not be able to go back to his previous lonely, pervert-free life. And that was perfectly fine with him. He loved Kakashi, loved him more than he ever dreamed he would be able to love someone, and incredibly enough, the jounin loved him back just as much, if not more. And the chuunin could not think of one single thing life could grace him with to make him happier than he was right now.

Suddenly, he did not want to go to that party anymore. He did not want to see his friends, and even the promise of Kurenai’s delicious free food wasn’t making him enthusiast anymore; all he wanted to do, he realized, was to be with Kakashi. Then, everything became clear in the brown-haired man’s man. He did not want to fear anymore. He didn’t want to flee anymore. He didn’t want to make excuses anymore. At that thought, Iruka suddenly heaved a sigh and stopped on his tracks.

“What’s wrong?” the ex-anbu asked his lover, frowning.

“Nothing. But I think,” Iruka muttered mysteriously into the night, “that I’m feeling courageous tonight.”

His boyfriend stared at him with surprise, and for a long minute neither of them said anything, a comfortable silence stretching on between the two lovers.

“... this basically means we’re heading back home, right?”

“Pretty much. But I feel bad about it – I promised Raidou I’d be there, after all.”

“Maa, nothing stops us from arriving a few hours late. It’s even fashionable.”

At those words, Iruka shook his head and smiled. “For unreliable, lazy bums like you, maybe. But if I start getting late, everybody is going to say that you’re having a bad influence on me.”

“Iruka, they’re already saying it – might as well give them a reason to.”

The chuunin chuckled as they turned on their heels and slowly started to head back home. “You know, I think you truly _do_ have a bad influence on me.”

The silver-haired man laughed and the echo of his heart-warming laugh resounded through the silent night and Iruka’s mind as they made their way back to the apartment. As the academy teacher drew closer with every step he took to his apartment, he started to feel nervousness and anticipation building in him, but strangely enough, he wasn’t feeling uneasy. Because for the first time, he wasn’t going to just let things happen and accept them afterward.

Because for the first time, he knew what he truly wanted.

As the brown-haired man unlocked his front door, Kakashi sighed heavily.

“To think I went through the trouble of putting on civilian clothes for nothing...” he whined childishly and Iruka snorted.

“Poor little thing.”

“Gonna help me to remove them, sensei?”

“... Don’t push your luck.”

 

\----

 

Nobody really understood why, that night, Iruka and Kakashi showed up a good three hours late at Kurenai’s for Raidou’s promotion party. Nor why Iruka had that strangely off look when he apologized for it – like he wasn’t really feeling sorry at all. Most people just dismissed it as Kakashi’s growing bad influence on the good-hearted teacher. First, he arrived late, and then he didn’t really seem to feel sorry about it? Where was the world going? The jounin certainly enough couldn’t be good for him. He even pretended their lateness was his fault – just how much the silver-haired man brain-washed the poor chuunin? And sure enough, in the following days the inhabitant of Konoha started to spread the news of how the strict and nice teacher had been corrupted into becoming a shrewd person ever since he had started dating the famous and infamous Copy nin. Some even went as far as to complain to the Hokage about the bad influence of certain high-ranked nins on young, easily influenced chuunins entrusted with the upbringing of the village’s children, and got pretty offended when the Godaime actually burst out laughing at the mention of a ‘young and easily influenced’ Iruka.

But people who knew well both Kakashi and Iruka knew better. As Raidou was going to bed that night – happy, slightly more inebriated than he would have wanted to be and more well-fed that he had probably ever been in his life, thank to Kurenai – he couldn’t help but smile at the memory of how the chuunin looked slightly flushed and happy with himself during the evening. Oh, he wasn’t about to kiss and tell – he’d keep that piece of information to himself and let the whole village think that the brown-haired man was turning into a reckless person because of the lazy Sharigan user. But, the scarred jounin thought smugly, _he_ knew better.

He knew that his friend Iruka had finally found love, and he couldn’t think of a single person in the whole village who deserved it more than him.

 

The End. (for real)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know, the ending was weird. But I think it’s somewhat nice nonetheless – and I didn’t know how to end it anyway. 
> 
> Actually, even as I was almost half-way through the writing of the epilogue, I still didn’t know if I would put a sex scene in it or not. I didn’t mind not writing one but I knew people would definitely get disappointed if I didn’t – you bunch of horny readers! In the end, I was seriously considering squeezing a sex scene somewhere, but then I realized that it wouldn’t go with the natural flow of the story – and I fancy my stories to be flowing. I think unnatural and forced sex scenes can ruin a good story like nothing else can. So screw the sex scene, sorry everyone! I know you hate me right now. But I think I can live with the burden. 
> 
> Even if this story wasn't originallt posted here, I'd still like to thank all the people who followed this story and who encouraged me throughout the two years I worked on it. Thanks again to you guys, you've been wonderful :)


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